The search for unexpected treasures gets collectors hunting through the various catalogs for the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money auctions.

One of the largest lots in the Stack’s Bowers Galleries Rarities Night auction Aug. 15 was this 1973-S Eisenhower silver-copper clad dollar graded Proof 65 Cameo by Numismatic Guaranty Corp. that represents a major Mint error.

Broadstruck without a collar, the planchet was struck at least twice and due to these multiple strikings the planchet’s mirrored fields have extended all the way to the edges. Also remarkable is that the devices are sufficiently frosted to earn a Cameo designation. 

Stack’s Bowers observed “distended remnants of the peripheral design outside the border of the primary strike,” before concluding, “The result is one of the most visually impressive major Mint errors of any kind that we have ever had the privilege of bringing to auction.” 

It sold for $12,000, and the huge size — well above the normal diameter of 38.1 millimeters — makes one question how it left the San Francisco Mint, since it is significantly larger than the opening in the plastic cases used to house the individual Proof Eisenhower dollars, which were available for direct purchase from the U.S. Mint.

The error’s large size is enhanced by its current placement in an oversized NGC slab.

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