As you travel from dealer to dealer, be on the lookout for Cove Island Ontario. Approximately 12 of the sculptures were released with an incorrect edition size on the flag. They read "10,000" instead of "8,000".

This error was spotted by a Harbour Lights dealer who sent the incorrect one back to HL -- meaning 11 more could be out there.

When first sculpted, the edition size was going to be 10,000. Then Harbour Lights re-thought the edition sizes of several 99 releases and decided to make it 8,000 for Cove Island. But the master sculpture had been shipped to the Orient and at least one working mold was made before the word was flashed to change the edition size to 8,000.

One of the reasons that Harbour Lights sculptures are so uniformly sharp from beginning of production to the end is that a working mold is only used for 10-15 castings.

Don't be embarassed to ask to see the other Cove Island Sculptures the dealer might have. And don't be afraid to tell the dealer why you want to see them.

This error is similar to the misspelled "MULKILTEO" (extra L). 7 of these are known to have been found -- there might be a few more still out there at dealers or in collections. Two have been sold by the lucky finders -- $3,600 for one, $4,500 for the other (which included three pieces in serial number order with the middle one having the error.)

Harbour Lights refers to these as "Production Modifications". A change that was made during the course of production.

Production Modifications include:

(Some examples, not an exhaustive list)

Color changes - the lighthouse or the water
- New London Ledge - green to blue water
- Barnegat - green to bluse water
- Minot's Ledge - water change & other changes
- Michigan City - green to blue
- Round Island - pinkish to brownish bricks
- Beavertail - tan tower to gray tower

Mold Changes
- Assateague VA - remolded after 988
- Cape Hatteras NC - remolded after 288
- Gray's Harbor WA - top gets rotated from correct alignment during assembly

Flag Changes
- Highlands to Highlands
- Split Rock MI to Split Rock MN (there are a few Split Rock MA also)
- Admirality Head to Admiralty Head
- Burrows Island OR to Burrows Island WA

For those who enjoy the thrill of the hunt, looking for a variation can be exciting.

[This message has been edited by JChidester (edited 09-11-99).]

Split Rock, MA??? I guess I should have one of those since I from the "Bay State". That's the first time I heard of that one.

Bob

Well it's not exactly MA - it's an "M" with an "A" without the cross-stroke. Like they added the downstroke to the I to begin to make an N, but didn't get the final stroke done.

John, shouldn't Gray's Harbor be under a different category since it wasn't really a "mold" that caused the variation? Maybe "Assembly Error" would better describe it.

Ron
(CT Keeper)

I agree Ron - it is an assembly error, not a resculpting.

Does anyone know what flag #s (or range of #s)are involved with this variation?

Like the MuLkilteo, I would expect that these pieces are NOT consecutively numbered. I don't know the number of the one returned to Harbour Lights.

They are not necessarily consecutive because they are not numbered until painted and pieces will get out of order between casting and painting.