| Description: |
Copper. Reeded edge. Rich chocolate brown with highlights of deep blue in the fields and
rich orange-brown surrounding devices and legends, faded from mint color. A beautiful
example exhibiting shallow reflectivity in the fields and subtle mint bloom. The surface
quality is superb, with only the most minor handling marks. A spot below star 5 near
Liberty's shoulder serves as an identifier of this prized rarity, some other tiny
flyspecks including one near Liberty's exposed foot, faint old scratch behind eagle's
head. An exciting and famous numismatic property, struck nearly at the birth of American
numismatics at the U.S. Mint to sate demand for the very rare silver dollars of 1851. This
piece was struck from one of two restrike obverse dies, these bearing a centered date
rather than the high placement of the date logotype seen on the rare originals of 1851.
This die is the better known of the two obverses, with tiny curved mark on final 1 in
date, not the die discovered by James Gray, Tom Delorey, and Dave Bowers in 1992. This die
pair was also used to strike the silver 1851 restrike dollars.
The 1851 Restrike
dollars are among the first of the U.S. Mint's coins produced exclusively for collectors.
This process happened contemporaneously with the production of the Class II and III 1804
dollars, restrike Gobrecht dollars, and other such delicacies that were apparently
produced, as Mint Director James Ross Snowden suggested to "gratify a taste which has
lately greatly increased in this country" by restriking old coins which draw a
premium in the numismatic market "so that the profits may inure to the benefit of the
Mint Cabinet of Coins and Ores" (letter to Treasury Secretary Howard Cobb, January
22, 1859). It is estimated that 50 to 100 were produced in silver, but far fewer were
coined in copper with fewer than a dozen currently known. The newest Judd book lists the
population at eight pieces. The copper specimens may have been struck somewhat later, as
they did not appear in the numismatic marketplace until around 1865. At least some of the
very rare copper strikings have been silver-plated, suggesting that the silver pieces were
more highly valued than copper ones at the time. Dave Bowers notes two reported in his
Silver Dollar Encyclopedia; your cataloguer has seen one piece silver-plated, a privately
held example from a Western collection. The present example is among the very finest known
of Judd-132, tied for finest graded at NGC with two others given the RB designation,
including the Dr. Wallace Lee coin which sold at auction in January 1999. Indeed, the
appearance of this coin is the first opportunity to purchase Judd-132 at public auction
since that time, and feverish competition is expected among those who understand the
importance of this great American rarity.
NGC Census: 3; none finer. The two other
Proof-64 coins are both designated RB by NGC. PCGS has certified a total of four pieces,
and these two bodies of information have not been checked for replication. PCGS has
certified none finer than Proof-64. |
