Lot 739
1823 Restrike. NGC graded MS-66 Red & Brown. CAC Approved. Lustrous bright original red fading to light chocolate brown and steel, nearly a third of the original red remaining. Essentially flawless. The best identifying marks are a faint vertical streak of dark steel toning from the I in LIBERTY to the rim above and a microscopic speck of dark toning just above the berry under the first A in AMERICA. Latest die state with a strong bisecting die crack across the obverse, another that meanders across the reverse, and a final crack down through TE in STATES to the earlier bisecting crack. These "Restrikes" were made privately outside the mint using discarded mint dies sold as scrap. The obverse die used was the normal Newcomb-2 variety of 1823, but apparently a reverse die of the type used in 1823 was not available and they substituted a reverse die that had been used for the 1813 Sheldon-293 variety. The result was an "1823" cent that looked nothing like the genuine mint product, but it filled a need for collectors since this date has always been a challenge in high grade. Breen says 49 uncracked examples were struck in 1862 for Joseph J. Mickley before the obverse die broke, and an unknown number of pieces were struck from the cracked dies. This is one of the finest known. Our grade is MS65. Population 1; none finer at NGC.
Estimated Value $2,000-UP.
Ex Legend Numismatics 5/2004-Kenneth Goodman.
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| Realized $2,703 |
