Lot 1618
1803 $10 Capped Bust. . BD-3, Breen-6844. NGC graded MS-63. Lovely golden toning on both sides. Variety having the upper beak near the star point; the right foot of E over a cloud space. Approximately 150 to 200 known according to Dannreuther. Only the left claw is weakly impressed along with some of the obverse stars which, while showing most star radials, a few are rounded. Nevertheless, we are struck by the nice, convincing design detail for all main areas of this important early Capped Bust Eagle coin with not even the slightest amount of flatness on the hair and cap, shoulder or neck curl, eagle or shield. An impressive coin that a numismatist could use for presentation purposes when instructing others about the history of United States early gold coins. Intense but still satiny frost, the mainly brilliant to a soft golden color through which wonderful radiance persists almost undiminished. A few minute hairlines present. No distracting marks or carbon spotting, however, which immediately catches your eye that this truly is an above-average specimen of the 1803 issue. Pop 22; 11 finer, 10 in 64, 1 in 66.
Note: The Philadelphia Mint struck an estimated 15,017 1803 capped bust eagles from a single obverse die and several different reverse dies. The reverses are known with Small Stars and Large Stars. One variety for the Large Stars has faint traces of a fourteenth star punched into a cloud.
Ohio became the 17th state in the Union on February 19, 1803, and the first new state which abolished slavery from the beginning of statehood; earlier, Vermont, which joined the Union in 1791, had abolished slavery under its constitution of July 1777. The Louisiana Purchase was completed at a cost of about $15 million, and added about 828,000 square miles of land to the United States. New York and Massachusetts threatened to secede from the United States in protest of Jefferson's purchase, which was made secretly.
Fort Dearborn, later known as Chicago, was established on the western shore of the lower part of Lake Michigan. Buffalo, New York was founded where the Niagara River meets Lake Erie. In May 1803, official U.S. architect Benjamin Latrobe addressed the American Philosophical Society on the subject of steam power, but was not enthusiastic about its prospects. In the meantime, great advances in steam power had been made elsewhere, particularly in England by Boulton & Watt. South Carolina resumed importing slaves to solve a labor shortage brought about by increased need for cotton pickers; Eli Whitney's cotton gin, invented in 1792, made it possible to vastly expand the crop.
Estimated Value $60,000 - 70,000.
|
| |
| Unsold |
