LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 February Long Beach Signature Coin #460  / 

2006

1793 1C Wreath, Vine and Bars Edge. Very Good 10

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:7,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1793 1C Wreath, Vine and Bars Edge. Very Good 10
<B>1793 1C Wreath, Vine and Bars Edge. Very Good 10 PCGS. S-7, B-8, Low R.6. </B></I> <B>Bland Very Good 7; tied for CC-12. Noyes Very Good 7; tied for CC-9. Photo #24052. Our EAC Grade Very Good 7.<BR><BR>Equivalents.</B></I> Crosby 8-F; McGirk 2-E; EAC 8; <I>Encyclopedia</B></I> 1638; PCGS #1347.<BR><B><BR>Variety.</B></I> Left leaf is wide, the right leaf narrow. The bow is small and heavy. The obverse appears on S-7. The reverse appears on S-5, S-6, S-7, and NC-5. Vine and Bars Edge. The obverse is usually recognized by the arcing die failure through the date.<BR><B><BR>Surfaces. </B></I>Even, glossy, dark brown surfaces. Noticeable porosity is seen over each side with a tiny planchet flake out of the obverse on the upper portion of Liberty's neck, and a larger flake out of the reverse over the lower portion of the C in CENT.<BR><B><BR>Die State IV.</B></I> A later die state, one where the dot over the I in LIBERTY no longer shows. Heavy die failure is seen through the 179 of the date. Even though absent on this coin, the dot on the unique early die state of S-7 is considered by some to be proof that the engraver used a twin punch to make the border beads. However, Bill Noyes writes: "The enigmatic ‘Double dot' cent has what appears to be an extra border bead dotting the I in LIBERTY. No plausible explanation has been reported."<BR><BR><B>Appearances.</B></I> The obverse and reverse are illustrated in Noyes (2006).<BR><BR><B>Census.</B></I> Most known examples of this die variety are found in lower grades, with only two pieces known in Very Fine or better. Despite the low grade of this specimen, it remains in the top 12 for the variety.<BR><BR><B>Commentary.</B></I> In his <I>Encyclopedia of United States Large Cents,</B></I> Walter Breen attempted to correlate delivery dates and varieties, giving an estimated mintage for each die marriage. For example, he suggested that this variety constituted just a few hundred examples from the delivery of April 13.<BR><BR>Today, numismatists are divided in their opinion of the validity of this study. Such a determination requires accurate answers to difficult questions. The exact emission sequence--the order that all coins were struck--must be precisely determined, including any possible remarriages where a single die variety was produced both before and after another variety. Accurate rarity ratings must also be determined, including separate accountings of the individual die states for those varieties that were remarried. A successful distribution of varieties across various delivery records must assume that both of those variables can accurately be determined. Assuming that such a successful distribution can be accomplished, other factors must still be considered, such as the influence of hoards discovered over the years. An example is the Nichols Find of 1796 and 1797 cents.<BR><BR>Sheldon-7 is a rarity that Sylvester Crosby discovered in 1878, although the discovery coin is no longer traced. Crosby also discovered a second known example at the same time, likewise now untraced. In 1897, Crosby recounted: "The discovery of this obverse was a curious instance of the appearance of a new die after a search of many years over a large field. Nearly ten years after the publication of the article on these cents in the <I>Journal of Numismatics,</B></I> in 1869, when we had most of the important collections at our service, and a thorough search had been made in all directions, a lot of about seventy-five worn-out 1793 cents was sent me from Philadelphia, for examination. Among these I found two pieces from a die hitherto unnoticed, the only feature sufficiently preserved to distinguish them being the sprig under the bust."<BR><BR><B>Provenance.</B></I> <I>Dr. William H. Sheldon (Stack's, 10/1938), lot 256, $76; Floyd Starr (Stack's, 6/1984), lot 11, $4,950; G. Lee Kuntz (Superior, 10/1991), lot 7, $5,500; Wes Rasmussen (Heritage, 1/2005), lot 3007, $12,650</B></I>.<BR><BR><B>Personality.</B></I> <B>Floyd T. Starr</B></I> was born on December 8, 1904, in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, and died in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on April 7, 1971. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1929 and served in the Naval Reserve during World War II. His career was with the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, where he eventually held the position of financial vice president from 1959 to 1964. His earliest coin collecting activities seem to be about the time of his college graduation, as he attended the 1929 Henry Chapman sale of the Eaton Collection. Starr had diverse interests, although he is best known for his large cent collection and his collection of early proof coinage. In 1945 he purchased the entire late-date cent collection of Howard Newcomb for $5,350.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coins & Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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