1803 $10 Small Reverse Stars MS(PCGS#8565)

The November 2011 Baltimore Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

9672

等级

AU50

价格

94,837

详细说明

1803 Capped Bust Right Eagle. Taraszka-27, BD-2. Rarity-7. Small Reverse Stars. AU-50 (NGC). Medium yellow gold, slightly toned, with faint traces of reflectivity around the date and stars where the field recesses are most protected. Evenly struck and nicely so, with typical softness at the higher points of the motifs, but none worthy of specific mention. Examination with the unaided eye reveals essentially no distracting marks, however, magnification reveals some ancient obverse scratches, largely obscured by the design features. This piece was struck from the later of two observed die states, this with a short crack from the edge to the eagle's tail, and a second one that seems to be developing off the right side of the first T of STATES. Harry Bass owned just a single example of this variety, though he was known to acquire different die states in the early gold series, a testament to the true rarity of the variety. The other very rare variety for this year (BD-6) was not included in the Bass collection at all! As no terminal die states have been observed, it is not known why this variety is so rare, but it would have had to be the reverse that met some catastrophic end as the obverse die was used for all 1803 eagles, an issue comprised of six different die pairings. The Bass-Dannreuther reference estimates that just 6 to 10 examples are known, while the survey of auction appearances from 1990-2005 in the same book found just four offerings. Legitimately very rare and a key piece for the die variety specialist.