Leaderboard

Yes, couldn't resist showing it! - bought Stacks Bowers 2013 for ~£1800. Bought it with the following 1841 colon: https://www.noonans.co.uk/auctions/archive/lot-archive/results/272162/ That only cost about £200, but I sold it to a dealer friend for not much more than that - I had a better example already (the LCA 2009 Roland Harris one) and bought it as it was cheap. He stuck it into DNW and got £850 hammer for it! Both these coins came from the "Demarete" collection, According to Stacks Bowers he bought much of his stuff in London from the mid-50's onwards. Coincidentally Peck's P.1480 was sold in SNC mid-60's and described as having a mark on the face, which this one does as well. So I wonder if both this coin and the stunner 1853 were both ex-Peck, as in the same SNC list was Peck's 1853 copper proof penny (FDC as all his coins were graded in SNC - "all coins FDC unless stated otherwise"). The photo of the proof in Stacks Bower's archive is the same sort of appearance as the Verene specimen, which just shows how flattering the PCGS photography is!

Hey, don't rub it in!

Yet some of the 19th century base metal proofs do attract fair prices. Some are very rare and highly collectable. Obviously they're not going to compare with gold proofs, because not only do you have rarity in many cases, but also bullion value. The two together makes them irresistible as investment pieces, especially given the substantial rise in gold prices recently. Ideal hedge against inflation which you physically hold yourself. That places them completely outside the mercy of banks and other financial institutions - many of these are not the solid dependable pillars of society they used to be, with their increasingly incomprehensible modes of operation and weird ID demands. I can definitely see the attraction.

Its rarity is comparable with the 1877 F90 which would fetch much more in that condition.