January 6, 2012: I'm at the FUN show in Orlando, with my 11-year-old daughter Sarah Catherine, at table #313, Chris McCawley's and Bob Grellman's table. Mark Borckardt, senior numismatist of Heritage, is with us. John Wright, who has been in the Ancients section of the show, walks up to the table. He's the only one of us who has yet to see in person the coin I'm holding, a middle date large cent, but John is already well familiar with it. John examines the coin. I'm pretty much holding my breath throughout this entire procedure. But John, Bob and Mark come to a unanimous conclusion: This is an 1825, Andrews 5 variety. A variety that was delisted by Newcomb in 1940 because it didn't exist. One that was unknown for 128 years. And yet, we're all looking at one. This is a pretty neat moment.

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Back to December 2011. I have a small stack of padded envelopes I've received in the mail sitting on top of my computer. Due to several things - work schedule, helping kids with homework, and getting Christmas stuff out of the attic - things have gotten backed up. Finally I decide to tackle the pile. One has some weight to it, so I open that one, a small group of coins I purchased on eBay. In it are a some nice late dates and a nice low grade 1825. The late dates aren't attributed, but fortunately the 1825 is; N4. Less work for me. I go to re-holder the coin, but first I get out The Cent Book to check the reverse, just to make sure. I know there are nine varieties of 1825 and I can't yet attribute this date by sight. Well, the leaf under F in OF is too far left to be N4; looks like a misattribution. No problem; this is a common occurrence, and I purchased it because it was nice, so let's see what this is.

The point of the highest leaf on the reverse of this coin is under the second S in STATES. Three varieties of 1825 have the point of the highest leaf under S and not to the right, so this should be easy. It's not N4, because the leaf under F is wrong. Probably N6 or N10; wait, it's not N6, because the point of star 6 points way right of the coronet tip on N6, and it points directly at the coronet tip on this coin. Gotta be N10. I look more closely at the obverse now. N10s are pretty easy to pick out due to the wide date, but this coin doesn't have a wide date. Now I'm confused. I set the coin aside and go to the late dates. I get out Grellman's book and end up identifying these, which takes some time. But it's dinner time now. Then time for other late night activities, such as getting the kids to bed.

Ok, back to the 1825. I've obviously missed something, so I start to examine the coin more closely. Let's see - on N4, the 5 sits right on top of a dentil. On N10, the 5 sits between dentils. This coin only has a few dentils showing, but there's a dentil directly beneath the 5, and stars 12 and 13 point at or near the center of dentils, unlike N10. Ok - this has to be N4; I've made a mistake with the reverse. But... the leaf under F is still wrong. Plus, the leaf under S doesn't look right. Well, I know this isn't N6, and it's not N4 because of the reverse, and not N10 because of the obverse.

What the heck?

This isn't making any sense. Just to make sure, I balance the coin on my finger and tap it with the handle end of a letter opener. I get the expected high-pitched "ring". I examine the edge; no seam. This sure seems like something new. But that's impossible. I go to plan "B". In my inventory I just happen to have a low-grade example of both 1825 N4 and 1825 N10. I stack this mystery cent and the N4, reverse sides up, offset with each other but aligned, so that I can see both coins at the same time with a loupe, and rotate each coin, keeping them aligned. Ok, NO WAY this is an N4 reverse; on N4, the legend is very close to the wreath, and on the mystery cent the legend is far from the wreath. I grab the N10, reverse side up, and repeat the procedure. An exact match. The Cent Book mentions that, on N10, the N in CENT is grossly recut. My mystery cent has a recut N. Wow, ok, definitely an N10 reverse. I repeat the entire procedure with the obverses face up now. Again, a match on N4; not even close on N10, due to N10 having a wide date, plus the dentils match N4 and not N10. I'm on the 1825 N4 page in The Cent Book when I notice something interesting on the adjacent page, which reads:

*** There Is No Number 5 ***

The coin listed by Frank Andrews as his number 5 (4-E) is an early-state number 10. The specific coin from which Andrews made his "A-5" listing is a boldly-struck number 10, later in the Blaisdell collection, so the "long-lost Andrews 5" is a fiction - one of Andrews' few mistakes.

This mystery cent has the reverse of N10.

Wow.

Frank Andrews... that name is familiar to me, but I don't know much about him. I grab my small collection of reference books and fortunately happen to have a copy of Early American Coppers Anthology. Lo and behold, in the Table of Contents, I find "An Arrangement of United States Copper Cents 1816-1857, by Frank D. Andrews." Fantastic. I quickly turn to page 390, which has Andrews' page devoted to 1825. Andrews has a different reverse described (simply leaf positions) for his variety 5 and 10, but they're really similar. However, for the obverse of variety 5, Andrews' only note is "Same as No. 4".

My coin has the obverse of N4.

Could this be?

I decide to photograph the coin and post it on my website, in the miscellaneous section www.largecents.net/misc/1825.jpg. I then email one of my closest friends, Shawn Yancey, to get his opinion. At this point I still don't know what to think - I fully expect Shawn to tell me "no, this is an N-so-and-so" and that will be the end of it. The next morning I get an email back to Shawn, confirming that this sure looks like what I'm describing, and suggests that I send the coin to Bob Grellman. I quickly fire off an email to Bob to get his opinion. I also call Mark Borckardt; he's not around, so I leave a message. Mark has experience discovering new varieties, so I know he'll appreciate this. He calls back almost immediately. "Well, you have my attention." We talk for a few minutes and I give him a link to the coin. I also call John Wright, who's at home and is very interested in seeing a photo, and tells me he'll get back with me within a day or two. I also mention the coin to EAC treasurer Chuck Heck, who sends me updates for the EAC online database. Chuck says this could really be BIG.

On December 11th I have an email from John Wright in my Inbox. The first line reads:

I have confirmed your 1825 cent as obv N4 / Rev N10.

Bob Grellman emails me a few days later:

I agree Tom's cent does appear to be the "elusive" 1825 Andrews-5 variety. I have asked Tom to bring the coin to the FUN show for a careful examination. I'm particularly interested in ruling out a "sandwich" coin.

Now I'm getting excited. I've already planned on attending FUN this year, and my daughter Sarah Catherine wants to go. FUN is three weeks away, but it seems like an eternity. Deep in my mind I'm still not convinced this is an Andrews 5, or what I'm calling an N4/N10 at the time; I really want others to see it "in the copper." In the meantime, just to make sure, I weigh the coin. We have a gram scale at work that will "weigh a gnat's butt" according to our mechanical engineer, and he's right; it's accurate to a microgram. I weigh a few other 1825s in G4 grade first, and the weights range from 10.0 to 10.3 grams. The N4/N10 weighs exactly 10.104 grams, right in line with the others.

The three weeks pass by (very slowly it seems,) but Sarah Catherine and I leave Mobile around 7:00 AM on Thursday January 5th, and travel the 521 miles to Orlando. We make excellent time and arrive in Orlando around 4:30 local time, so I decide to catch a little of the show. The first person I meet before we even get to the bourse is Chuck Heck, who gives me a huge hug and a big "congratulations!" Leading up to the show, John Wright and I have worked together to produce an addendum page for The Cent Book, including my photo and John's text. I have 20 copies to give out and give Chuck a copy, which he asks me, and Sarah Catherine, to sign for him. (Definitely a first!)

The first table we go to is McCawley/Grellman, and both Chris and Bob are the first people to examine the coin "in the copper." (It comes as a huge relief when Bob doesn't tell me it's a counterfeit or put-together coin!) I also seek out Tom Reynolds, and Bill Noyes is sitting with Tom at his table. To my great (and pleasant) surprise, Bill has also prepared an addendum page for his book, "U.S. Large Cents 1816 - 1839." Bill gives me several copies of the page to pass out, and I have him sign one for me and one for my daughter. I also meet Paul Pattacini, someone who has purchased coins from me before, at Tom's table. It's great to put a face to a name, and also great to find out he's a fellow South Alabama grad. I give him copies of the addendum pages from Wright and Noyes. He notices I'm holding the coin. "That's the coin? You're the one who discovered it? Can I hold it?" "Certainly!"

Saturday morning is the day of the EAC meeting, which starts at 9:00 AM. I'm dreading this moment just a little bit, because I have to get up and talk, which is something I still fear a little. Plus Paul Gilkes and Dave Harper of Coin World and Numismatic News, respectively, are there to do a story on the coin. (Absolutely no pressure, right?) Honestly I can't remember much of what I said - I wish I had Chuck Heck's gift of speaking - but I mention how I discovered the coin, answer a few questions, and then pass out addendum pages to those who request one. The rest of the day is quite fun; Sarah Catherine has had a good time attending the YN program and we join back up around noon; the two of us pan for gold later (neither of us find any, but some to our left find a few flakes,) we both meet Abraham Lincoln (at least I think it's him or a remarkable likeness, still not sure,) and we both go to Downtown Disney later in the day. She had a way better time than I could have imagined, and I have a lot of you EAC guys to thank for that (especially you Chuck - now she knows it's not just her dad who's just a bit nuts!)

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Based on a consensus, I believe this coin is to be called 1825 N5. N11 was another possibility, but based on the fact that Andrews had a variety 5 in his work, and the obverse was definitely variety 4, and the reverse Andrews described for variety 5 was so extremely close to variety 10, N5 won the argument. As it turns out, Andrews probably never actually owned the variety; he had an envelope for variety 5, but the envelope never contained a coin. According to Wright, the Blaisdell cent (which turned out to be N10,) was never owned by Andrews. Could it be that Andrews never actually saw the coin that he listed in his reference, but based it simply on a description? (That might account for the slightly different descriptions between his variety 5 and 10 reverses.) Could this be THAT coin?