1799 $10 Small Stars Obverse MS (PCGS#98562)
August 2020 U.S. Coins Auction
- 拍卖行
- Stack's Bowers
- 批号
- 1276
- 等级
- MS61
- 价格
- 183,402
- 详细说明
- Condition Census 1799 BD-7 Capped Bust Right $10
Just 8-12 Known
1799 Capped Bust Right Eagle. BD-4, Taraszka-16. Rarity-7. Small Obverse Stars. MS-61 (PCGS).
This is the finest specimen from these dies that we have offered in recent memory, surpassing even the incredible AU-55 (PCGS) from our August 2019 sale of the Taraszka Collection. The strike is remarkable and offers superior definition to Liberty's hair. Gleaming reflectivity in the fields emphasizes the rich, frosty texture that blankets the devices. The dominate yellow-gold hue is accented by deeper honey shades at the borders on the reverse. Attractive and impressively untroubled for this grade level.
This variety represents the first of three uses of this obverse die, and the fourth and final use of this reverse die. On the obverse, the digits 17 in the date are close and the second 9 is slightly higher than the first. Stars 2, 3 and 4 are lightly repunched, star 8 presents two points to the back of Liberty's cap, star 9 lightly touches the letter Y in LIBERTY below the right serif, and star 13 is relatively distant from the end of Liberty's bust. On the reverse, the lowermost arrow head is under the extreme left edge of the letter N in UNITED, a leaf tip just touches the center of the letter I in UNITED, the lowermost berry is centered under the final letter A in AMERICA, and there are small die rust lumps between the letters UN in UNITED and within the top of the N. The faint, jagged die line that bisects the letter O in OF on coins struck from earlier states of this reverse is no longer present in the BD-4 pairing.
After producing more than 5,250 coins (per Dannreuther) while paired with four different obverses, the reverse die of 1799 BD-4 was finally withdrawn from production after this marriage. The terminal state of this die arose early in the 1799 BD-4 press run, explaining the small number of examples struck and, consequently, the rarity of this variety. Whether this reverse suffered some kind of catastrophic failure that would be attributed as Die State f, or whether Mint employees considered the expanding cracks of Die State e sufficient to force the abandonment of this die, is unknown. To date, the only reverse die state known for the 1799 BD-4 variety is e, offered here. Additionally, there are no perfect obverse coins (Die State a) known. This is not surprising given the elusiveness of examples. Perfect obverse and/or terminal reverse examples may simply no longer exist, if they were struck in the first place.
This is a handsome Mint State example of this challenging early gold type and exceedingly rare die pairing. As such, it is a coin that holds tremendous appeal for advance type collectors as well as early gold variety enthusiasts.
PCGS# 98562.
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