But did you read the history of the coin about how few actually made it to circulation before the melt down.Thats the bummer
According to that history, The 20-cent piece was minted from 1875-1878. Nearly 1,355,000 were produced in total, with over 1.1 million of those being the 1875-S. Some 10,000 of the 1876-CC were minted, but most of those were melted down at the US Mint before ever being released. In 1877 and 1878, only a few hundred proofs were released.
Although Mint records indicate that there were 852,500 IH cents minted in 1877, recent studies indicate there might have only been 200,000 released to the public. According to Rick Snow, ANA "Numismatist of the Year" 2010, "the typical die can strike about 200,000 coins". All of the 1877's known have the same reverse die image and one of two obverse die images. "For a mintage of 4 times that amount we should see many more obverse and reverse dies. For circulations strikes, the Mint Report for 1878 states that 3 obverse dies and 6 reverse dies were made in 1877, but only 2 obverse dies and 1 reverse die were actually used. The remaining reverse dies were used in 1878. If records are correct, and only one die was used in 1877, the mintage would be much less than previously believed."
I base my odds of finding a 20-cent piece on the fact that there were 1,100,000 of them circulated from the San Francisco mint in 1875. When I compare that to the 852,000 (or maybe only 200,00) 1877 IH cents circulated, I like the odds. No doubt it will be a long shot! But that is why it's called my Wish List. You can bet I'll be doing the happy dance if and when it happens. HH Randy