Pattern Coins

           Pattern coins, maybe you’ve heard of them, or maybe you’ve seen an off-metal coin or a strange design?   The first time I saw it was when I saw an 1858 Indian Head Cent (slabbed by a TPG) and I thought “didn’t Indian  Head Cent’s start in 1859?”  Well, I was right, but this was a pattern, a proposed coin design. 
            The idea is that after a few designs are created they actually mint the coins so that they can have an idea  of what the coin actually looks and feels like.  Sometimes the idea is accepted, other times they need to make a  modification of it.  These pattern coins were both sold to collectors and given out to congress people.
            The coin I most likely saw that day was this: http://uspatterns.com/j208p253.html

             More recently, you may have seen on TV, a commercial where they sell a reproduction of a $50 Gold coin  in which "only two were ever minted" - yes, well, that's because that's a pattern as well (the commercial would  never tell you that though).  Additionally, it's not completely correct.  Acorrding to the USPattern website (listed below) there are in fact two gold $50 coins, however, they're two separate patterns ("large head" and "small head"). 

Check out this website for a lot more information regarding patterns, as well as pictures of them.                  http://uspatterns.com/index.html