Lot 2866
1797. 10x6 Stars B-3, BB-71 Rarity 3 PCGS graded Genuine XF Details. Cleaning. Harshly cleaned and untoned but still a very scarce Draped Bust, Small Eagle coin that always attracts fans of early American coins. The silver dollar is the most impressive of these, although all 1797-dated denominations are medium to very scarce. It has to be remember that at the time, the mint employed a hand-operated coining press to strike this. It was back-breaking, sweaty labor. Odd as it seems, mint workers were given a beer ration at the expense of the government. Not so odd, once one realizes that brewed beer was actually safer to drink than "fresh water" from a bacteria infested stream or well. Be that as it may, in 1797, no machine-powered presses (steam or otherwise) existed in the relatively poor and backward United States Mint. Though 1797 is the year England first applied a steam engine to a minting press to strike the famous cartwheel 2 pence coinage, steam-driven presses wouldn't come to the Philadelphia Mint until the late 1830s (PCGS # 6865) .
Estimated Value $3,500 - 4,000.
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| Realized $4,025 |
