51A P R I L 2 0 0 5 • N U M I S M A T I S Tw w w . m o n e y . o r g

DESPITE YEARS OF researchby numismatists, someU.S. coin varieties anddenominations remainmisunderstood and their

scarcity under-appreciated. How cancollectors distinguish varieties anddetermine their relative scarcity and,therefore, value? The 1856 “Upright 5”gold dollar is a case in point.

The U.S. Mint introduced the Type 3gold dollar in 1856, a year of transi-tion at its Philadelphia facility. Twogold dollar varieties produced therethat year reflect the changeover in thestyle of numerals used in the date, dis-tinguished by whether the 5 in 1856 isupright or slanting.

Errors and omissions add to theconfusion surrounding the relativescarcity of the “Upright 5” versus the“Slanting 5” variety. To accurately esti-mate the scarcity of each variety, itfirst must be accurately identified.Four simple diagnostics characterizethe “Upright 5” 1856 gold dollar:

1) The left and top bars of the 5 areperfectly perpendicular.

2) The date logotype containing the5 does not lean toward the 6.

3) The date logotype containing the5 does not lean away from the 8.

4) An invisible line connecting the

loop of the 5 is vertical.The 1856 “Upright 5” gold dollar is a

real hidden gem for collectors. Thecatalog of the March 15-16, 2000, saleheld by Stack’s of New York City (Lot37) notes that these coins “are manytimes rarer than their ‘slant 5’ counter-parts. Indeed, pieces at the Mint Stateand higher level are quite scarce.”

While no proof example of the “Upright 5” has been certified, Stack’soffered for sale a specimen (Lot 1085)described as a brilliant proof in itsOctober 20-22, 1992, auction of theFloyd T. Starr Collection of U.S. coins.The lot description concluded:

Even in business strike format the Upright 5 variety is rare. David W. Akers wrote in 1975 that it wasfive to ten times rarer than the com-monly seen Slanting 5 variety. Mint-age figures show that this estimate is conservative.

Records for auctions conducted inthe 1990s by Stack’s, Heritage Numis-matic Auctions, Superior Galleries,and Rarcoa/Akers list only a dozenappearances of uncirculated 1856“Upright 5” gold dollars. Some trans-actions may involve the same coinsfeatured in other sales.

The 1856 “Upright 5” Gold DollarEstablishing relative scarcity for varieties of the

same date and denomination is not an easy task.

by C ra i g K r u e g e r A N A 1 9 8 9 6 6

U.S. COINAGE

V

MAKING THE GRADE

� U.S. gold dollars minted in 1856have either a “Slanted 5” (top) or an”Upright 5” in the date.

Actual Size: 15mm

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52 N U M I S M A T I S T • A P R I L 2 0 0 5 w w w . m o n e y . o r g

Numismatists seem to concur thatthe 1856 “Upright 5” gold dollar is ascarce variety. J.P. Martin, who helpedfound Independent Coin GradingService (ICG), has suggested that itcould be 10 to 15 times scarcer thanits “Slanting 5” counterpart. In his1975 book United States Gold Coins,An Analysis of Auction Records, au-thor David Akers reported an averagegrade of Extremely Fine-40 and amintage of 33,660 for the 1856 “Up-right 5,” commenting:

The data shows that there were 85appearances of the 1856 gold dollarwith Upright 5, and 169 of the 1856Slanting 5. This, of course, wouldseem to indicate that the Upright 5variety is only twice as rare as theSlanting 5 variety. This ratio does notmatch my own experience, however,and I would estimate that the Up-right 5 variety is more likely five toten times as rare.

For the 1856 “Slanting 5,” Akersassigned a mintage of 1,729,276,adding, “This is one of the three orfour most common of all Type [3]gold dollars.” He also reported 23 “NoDesignation” examples, that is, coinsfor which no variety was stipulated.“Most of them,” Akers believed, “were

undoubtedly the Slanting 5 variety.”Mintage figures hold a clue to rela-

tive scarcity, but numbers provided by Akers and researcher Walter Breenmay be incorrect. They reported amintage of 33,660 for the 1856 “Up-right 5” gold dollar. Ken Bressett, edi-tor of the “Red Book” (A Guide Book ofUnited States Coins), disagrees, stat-ing no concrete evidence has beenpresented to corroborate the estimate.

From its inception, the Red Bookrecognized both “Slanting 5” and “Up-right 5” varieties for the 1856 gold dol-lar. From 1967 to 1990, the popularguide stated 1856 gold dollar mintageas 33,660 “Upright 5” and 1,729,276“Slanting 5.” From 1963 to 1966 and1991 to 2004, however, it gave only acombined mintage of 1,762,936.

Other publications also have tendedto confuse collectors by listing com-bined mintages. For example, 2000North American Coins & Prices, ed-ited by David C. Harper, reports mint-age of the 1856 “Upright 5” gold dollaras 1,762,936 and “Inc. Ab.” (IncludedAbove) for the “Slanting 5” variety.Without the use of brackets or paren-theses, readers might misread it assaying 1,762,936 “Upright 5” gold dol-lars were produced in 1856.

Calculating the original proportionof “Slanted 5” to “Upright 5” 1856 gold

dollars minted would be a first step inestablishing their current relativescarcity. Dividing the Red Book totalmintage (1,762,936) by Breen/Akers’“Upright 5” mintage (33,660) equatesto production of 52.37 “Slanted 5” forevery “Upright 5.”

This ratio differs significantly fromBreen’s estimate that the “Upright 5”was 8 to 10 times scarcer and Akers’ 5 to 10 times scarcer. Why, then,doesn’t the original mintage reflect asimilar ratio?

“Upright 5” gold dollars likely wereproduced in the fourth quarter of theyear, after “Slanting 5” dies were ex-hausted. Production of slanting-datecoinage ceased for all varieties after1856, perhaps the result of an adminis-trative decision to standardize denomi-nations. But according to numismatistJulian Leidman, “Nobody outside theMint in 1856 likely paid any attentionto nor cared whether the date logotypeon the reverse of the 1856 gold dollarwas upright or slanting.”

Can we trace the difference in mint-age versus survival ratios to an inter-vening event? We do know that for anumber of reasons, thousands of goldcoins were melted during the CivilWar. This great meltdown may haveimpacted the two varieties to differentdegrees. Or, one variety’s survival ratio

� The Philadelphia Mintlikely struck “Upright 5” gold dollars in the lastquarter of 1856, after all “Slanted 5” dies were exhausted.

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53A P R I L 2 0 0 5 • N U M I S M A T I S Tw w w . m o n e y . o r g

might have been disproportionatelyimpacted by being shipped to theSouth. After 1853, the New OrleansMint did not produce gold dollars.

Studying original mintages andpublished survival estimates, a collec-tor might look to coin grading serv-ices to answer the question of relativescarcity. But grading service popula-tion reports, which offer data on thenumber of coins submitted, do not al-ways accurately represent scarcity lev-els for Red Book varieties.

Variety attribution was not a prior-ity when grading services were estab-lished, and imprecision is the in-evitable consequence. John Dann-reuther, founder of Professional CoinGrading Service (PCGS), says thatwhen his firm launched these reports,“there wasn’t significant price discrep-ancies between common and scarcevarieties of certain US coinage andtherefore no demand for reportingsubmissions of designated varieties inpopulation reports.”

Accordingly, collectors should notrely exclusively on population report-ing. In fact, variety designation prac-tices have impacted more than 1,300PCGS and Numismatic GuarantyCorporation (NGC) submissions of1856 gold dollars. Until recently, nei-ther service properly designated the 1856 “Upright 5” and “Slanting 5”gold dollars.

Dannreuther reports that at first adecision was made to not differentiateall varieties of the same dominationand year. For its first 12 years, PCGScounted all 1856 gold dollars as“Slanted 5s.” Today, the firm notesvarietal differences. As of July 28,2004, PCGS reported submissions of809 “Slanting 5” and 69 “Upright 5”1856 gold dollars.

NGC’s April 2004 report showed303 “Slanting 5,” 85 “Upright 5” and583 “Undesignated” 1856 gold dollars.Until December 1999, NGC charged

an additional fee for designating “Up-right 5” or “Slanted” 5 varieties of the1856 gold dollar. Its decision to dropthis charge helped gold dollar collec-tors better understand the real popu-lation of the two varieties.

From its start, ANACS automati-cally designated 1856 gold dollars byvariety, at no additional charge. As of March 2004, ANACS’ ratio of“Slanted 5” to “Upright 5” 1856 golddollars was approximately 4 to 1 (241and 65 submissions, respectively).Dealers and astute collectors knowthe “Upright 5” is scarcer than its“Slanting 5” counterpart; thus,ANACS has received significantly

more submissions of the former, be-cause today the “Upright 5” is begin-ning to be valued slightly higher thanthe “Slanting 5,” skewing the ratio.

Application of the ANACS ratio tothe “Undesignated” NGC 1856 golddollar submissions may provide anapproximation of how many of theseactually are “Upright 5s.” However, forPCGS, the ratio should be appliedonly for coins submitted before thepolicy of reporting all 1856 gold dol-lars as the “Slanting 5” variety waschanged. Presumably, all new coinsubmissions after that time were

properly designated.The accuracy of population reports

in determining relative scarcity also is distorted by “breakouts,” or coinscracked out of their slabs and resub-mitted to the same or different grad-ing service. This practice has beencustomary ever since dealers and col-lectors realized it could be worthwhileto resubmit a coin in hopes of obtain-ing a higher grade and, thus, a higherprice. While no concrete data exists toabsolutely quantify average breakoutrates, conversations with numisma-tists suggest at least 15 percent.

No matter which factors are consid-ered or which estimate you believe tobe most accurate, the “Upright 5”clearly is the more scarce of the two 1856 gold dollar varieties. Myresearch indicates it is an extremelyundervalued variety because its truescarcity has yet to be fully understoodor appreciated by the numismaticcommunity, as demonstrated bytoday’s market values.

The coin market has embraced thescarcity of the “Closed 3” variety of1873 gold dollar, as evidenced byprices four to five times greater thanthe common “Open 3” variety. On theother hand, the 1856 “Upright 5” golddollar has realized only slightly higherprices in upper grades.

Rediscovery of the true scarcity ofvarieties undoubtedly awaits collec-tors and numismatists. Further studyof other Red Book varieties may yieldnew insights. O

Learn More . . .

Akers, David. United States GoldCoins, An Analysis of Auction Records,Volume I: 1849-1889. Englewood, OH:Paramount Publishing, 1975. (ANALibrary Catalog No. GB10.A3g)

Krueger, Craig, and John W. Dann-reuther. “A New Slant on Coins of1850-56.” The Numismatist (June2003).

For original mintages and survival estimates, collectors should not look

exclusively to population reports to answer the question of relative scarcity.

� The 2005 “Red Book” lists the com-bined mintage for the “Upright 5” and“Slant 5” varieties of 1856 gold dollar.

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