| Description: |
Even and pleasing deep steel brown with very nearly smooth surfaces that retain some
gloss. Excellent eye appeal, even better surface quality, the fields and devices nearly
devoid of marks. Careful magnified scrutiny reveals a few microscopic pits in Liberty's
hair and insignificant surface granularity which is more notable on reverse than
obverse—describing the granularity is more academic exercise than defect apology, as it
makes no practical impact on the very nice visual appeal boasted by the present specimen.
Boldly struck, a dig over right side of N in ONE offered for those who may wish to track
this coin's pedigree in the future. Put simply, this is one of the nicest 1804 cents to
come on the market in some time, all things considered. 1804 cents appear sometimes in
wretched condition or in sharper grades but with one sort of problem or other, but a
lightly circulated and attractive specimen is a find. Savvy collectors will realize the
desirability of the present cent and offer a bid that will ensure its purchase for their
cabinet.The census of Sheldon-266, the only die pair of the year, offered by Del Bland in
Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States Early Cents, ranks coins whose grades range
(in the conservative net grade style used by members of EAC) from AU-50 (a technically
Mint State coin described as having reverse roughness—the Penny Whimsy plate coin) to
VF-35. 16 coins fall within that range, and this coin is comparable in quality to some of
those at the bottom end of that extended Condition Census and perhaps even more desirable
than a few when its clean surfaces and good eye appeal are accounted for. |
