Lot 1290
1828 Capped Bust Dime. Small date. . JR-4. NGC graded MS-64. Well struck. A trifle soft on the eagle's neck. Prooflike obverse. Mottled russet toning. This originally toned near-Gem rests comfortably in the Condition Census for the variety. Both sides reveal bright, satiny mint luster that radiates forcefully through a mottled overlay of sandy-gray patina. In addition, the strike is smartly executed, with fields and devices silent on the subject of distracting abrasions. That yields a strong candidate for inclusion in a specialized collection of Bust coinage or a first-year type set.
A semi key-date issue in the capped bust dime series, the 1828 has a limited mintage of 125,000 pieces. The majority appear to have been struck after the Mint introduced a close collar to the production process. Nevertheless, the 1828 Small Date is a scarce coin in all grades and is quite rare in Mint State.
In 1828, Engraver William Kneass introduced a new minting system that allowed coins to be struck with a uniform diameter. This process had at its core the replacement of the open collar with a close, or reeded collar "die." The dime served as the test denomination for this new method of striking coins, which proved successful and eventually found its way into the production of all copper, silver and gold coins over the next nine years. The introduction of Kneass' system serves as a dividing point in the capped bust dime series, meaning that type collectors may want to obtain two examples of this design in order to complete their sets. As a whole, the coins struck using the new close collar are more plentiful than their earlier-date counterparts. They are, nevertheless, rightly classified as scarce, if not rare in the finer Mint State grades. Pop 5; 3 finer; 2 in 65; 1 in 66. (PCGS # 4510) .
Estimated Value $3,500 - 4,000.
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| Realized $3,450 |
