HL-417(178) MUKILTEO, WASHINGTON 1996.

Mukilteo, WA was originally made as a Great Lighthouse Of The World (G.L.O.W) in 1996 with the assigned piece number of HL-417. There was such an outrage by collectors because Harbour Lights had made this piece as a GLOW before it had been a "limited edition piece" that Harbour Lights made a change. The piece number was changed from HL-417 to HL-178 with a limited edition size of 9,500.
The more-rare piece number of HL-417 has no edition size on the name plate (because it was supposed to be an open edition)!

In addition to the limited edition problem, an even bigger issue surfaced when it was discovered that the manufacturers were sending out lighthouses with the inaccurate spelling of Mulkilteo (with an added "L") instead of the correct spelling of Mukilteo (no "L").
Harbour Lights recognized the problem and corrected it by removing the “L & U” and replacing it with a wider “U”, but still a few MISSPELLINGS leaked out, resulting in one of the RAREST lighthouse VARIATIONS a collector can find!

In addition to the extra "L" version, another version surfaced as Muukilteo (with 2 "U"'s), and this even rarer version is mentioned in the "Official Harbour Lights Collectors Guide" by John Chidester.
Then, there is a third variation This piece is the Mlkilteo (It replaces the "U" with an "L" - no vowel). I would put the entire MUKILTEO version together as the same value (except for the flat “U” version which is worth very little more than the regular MUKILTEO).

The first version (MULK) being the actual misspelled version that was misspelled during production. This version can be found on the numbers up to the low 1600’s and on all the AP’s. The known amount of this variation is between 8 to 12 plus all the Artist proofs.

The UU version would be a touch-up that came from the factory and so far there is only one known which was swooped up on EBay by one of our forum Saints for around $350.

The MLK version is a stamping error that usually is one of a kind, except in this case there are three known, the A0498, A0698 and the A0962. The MLK version was known before the HL Collectors guide came out, but was forgotten and didn’t get listed.

I would put the three variations value at $600 with $500 the low and $700 the high. But even if a collector wanted to purchase one it is probably next to impossible to find one. The rare variation types have not been listed on ebay since November 2008.

Last edited by DANIEL; 12/11/11 03:40 PM.

DANIEL