Lot 903
1800 B-12, BB-184 Rarity 3. PCGS graded AU-55. Housed in a new secure plus holder. Pop 1; none finer at PCGS for the variety. Mostly untoned with a minute splash of blue coloration here and there. Quite lustrous, well centered with long dentils providing a picture-frame border for the inner design. Surfaces smooth and mar-free. A winner in anyone's book!
What distinguishes this BB variety is its reverse: A die dot inside the lower part of E in UNITED, and a more prominent die flaw at the lower left side of E in AMERICA. A flaw or crack like a single quotation mark or line is visible to the upper left of U in UNITED. These things quickly distinguish this reverse from all others. Left side of N in UNUM about in a line with edge of eagle 's neck the only 1800 reverse for which this is true. Smallest letters in E PLURIBUS UNUM of any reverse die used this year. The berries are small. Leaf point under left side of upright of I in AMERICA. Point of upper part of eagle's beak shuts down near point of star. A does not touch feathers, and AME do not join. A over clouds 2 (partly) and 3 (mostly). Tip of arrowhead under right upright of U in UNITED. The U in UNITED is defective at its upper left corner, from a broken punch (as with 1799 reverses H, I and P), but was hand-corrected by its engraver; thus, this is possibly one of the earliest 1800 dies. The fact that all but two 1799 reverses had small letters in E PLURIBUS UNUM also reinforces this suggestion. This reverse die used to strike 1800 BB-184 only (PCGS # 40070) .
Estimated Value $9,000 - 11,000.
Ex: Hesselgesser Collection.
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| Realized $14,375 |
