Lot 2083
$10 Capped Bust. 1799. Small obverse stars, Taraszka-13: 9-H, Breen-unknown. High Rarity-7. Sharpness of EF-40 but cleaned. An extremely rare die variety for the specialist to acquire, the obverse is quickly identifiable by a crack through the eighth star down behind the cap, and the twelfth star is obviously recut, the reverse is the Taraszka-H seen on other varieties with the die lumps between UN and CA. Prior to this example turning up, only three others have been located, one from Heritage's 1994 ANA Sale, lot 5817, choice EF (plated there and in the Taraszka reference) another coin from Lester Merkin's 2/12/72 Sale, lot 433 (plated but erroneously labeled lot 432) which is now in the Harry Bass Foundation collection and most recently an example was offered (Unattributed, but it was this variety from the plate) as Superior Galleries in October, 2001 as lot 2824 graded AU-55 cleaned (thanks to Jim McGuigan for noting this rare offering to us).
On this specimen, the surfaces show evidence of an old cleaning or light polishing, and typical circulation marks are present. Sharply struck by the dies, and apparently struck before the very late die state coin in the Harry Bass foundation, but the present coin was clearly struck later than the Heritage/Taraszka plate coin as the crack through the eighth star is more developed. While not a perfect circulated example, waiting for another one to turn up may be a fools game, as another may not exist. A foremost opportunity for the specialist to acquire something quite unusual.
Estimated Value $4,000-UP.
From the Benson collection and purchased from an unknown source circa 1944 for $40.00.
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| Realized $4,945 |
