1916 G$1 McKinley, CAM PR(PCGS#388576)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3442

Grade

PR63CAM

Price

66,000

Lot Description

Our first offering for a Proof of this commemorative gold issue since 2010, and a simply beautiful specimen. Soft pinkish-gold color flows over surfaces that contrast reflective, watery fields with satiny, fully defined motifs. A few wispy obverse marks from ancient numismatic handling do little more than define the Proof-63 numeric grade, as the reverse is essentially Choice, and the eye appeal is strong in all regards. An elegant coin worthy of the strongest bids.<p>Authorized by the Act of February 23, 1916, commemoratives of this type were intended to mark the completion of a memorial to President William McKinley in his hometown of Niles, Ohio. The original proposal called for a silver dollar, which was abandoned in favor of a gold dollar in recognition of the fact that McKinley was elected president in 1896 largely due to his support for the gold standard. (His opponent in the general election, William Jennings Bryan, had secured the Democratic Party's nomination through his now-famous Cross of Gold speech.) Although the authorizing legislation allowed for a maximum mintage of 100,000 gold dollars, the Philadelphia Mint delivered only 20,000 Mint State examples in 1916, followed by 10,000 in the same format in 1917, using designs by Charles E. Barber (obverse) and George T. Morgan (reverse). With 10,023 examples of the 1916-dated delivery melted, the net mintages for these issues are 9,977 and 10,000, respectively. While the 1917 is recognized as the scarcer of the two issues, especially in the finer Mint State grades, both are readily collectible.<p>On the other hand, Proofs of this type rank among the rarest coins attributed to the 20th century United States Mint. Walter Breen was aware of only seven examples (four 1916; three 1917) when he wrote his Proof coinage <em>Encyclopedia</em> in 1977, and had knowledge of just 11 (six and five, respectively) when he wrote his <em>Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins</em> in 1988. The existence of Proof McKinley Memorial gold dollars is also noted by Anthony Swiatek and Walter Breen in their <em>Encyclopedia of U.S. Silver & Gold Commemorative Coins</em>: "There are at least a half dozen Proofs of the 1916 (including one in the Smithsonian Institution) and five of the 1917..." More recently, Anthony J. Swiatek provided estimated mintages of possibly four to six Proofs for each date in his <em>Encyclopedia of the Commemorative Coins of the United States</em> (2012), but also noted, "There are no proofs for the 1917 coin." This statement recognized that neither PCGS nor NGC had certified a Proof 1917 at the time, which remains true to this day. This leaves the Proofs of the first-year 1916 for advanced collectors, and these are exceedingly rare with a combined PCGS and NGC population of just five in all grades, all categories. The quality is remarkably uniform for this quintet, each specimen of which has been assigned a numeric grade of Proof-63 or Proof-64; the split between non-Cameo and Cameo is pretty much down the middle. Coveted CAC approval adds further appeal for this landmark commemorative gold rarity, a coin that would serve as a highlight in even the most advanced numismatic cabinet.