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

2031

1794 1C Head of '94. MS65 Brown PCGS. S-29,

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:32,500.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1794 1C Head of '94. MS65 Brown PCGS. S-29,
<B>1794 1C Head of '94. MS65 Brown PCGS. S-29, B-11, R.2. </B></I> <B>Bland MS60; CC-3. Noyes MS60; tied for CC-1. Photo #22675. Our EAC Grade MS60.<BR><BR>Equivalents. </B></I>Maris 25 (Nondescript); Frossard 11.2, 15; Doughty 38; Hays 24; McGirk 11-A; Ross 15-Q; Chapman 21; EAC 14; <I>Encyclopedia </B></I>1660; PCGS #901374.<BR><B><BR>Variety. </B></I>Five locks are vertically aligned. Right ribbon long, nearly touching dentils. The obverse appears on S-28 and S-29. The reverse appears on S-29 and S-30. Lettered Edge, leaf points up.<BR><B><BR>Surfaces. </B></I>An incredibly beautiful, glossy brown cent with full mint frost covering both surfaces. Hints of lilac-blue can be seen throughout, along with tinges of original mint red along the reverse border. Nearly all aspects of the design are sharply detailed and the impression is well centered with full obverse and reverse borders.<BR><B><BR>Die State III.</B></I> A late die state, although not the terminal state for the variety. The obverse has several die cracks and the reverse has a faint crack from the border to the wreath, through the R of AMERICA. Bulges have yet to develop on the reverse.<BR><B><BR>Appearances. </B></I>The reverse is illustrated in Frossard-Hays. The obverse and reverse are illustrated in Chapman, in Breen's <I>Large Cent Encyclopedia</B></I>, and in Noyes (2006). The obverse is illustrated in <I>Penny Whimsy</B></I>.<BR><BR><B>Census. </B></I>Bland lists this as the third finest known example of the variety, although he had seen neither of the two pieces that he ranked higher. In 1991 Noyes listed this coin in second place behind a coin that he graded MS60+. Since then, Noyes has revised his opinion, placing the two Mint State coins in a tie for the top spot in his Census.<BR><BR><B>Commentary. </B></I>The engraver had some difficulty spacing the reverse legend. In AMERICA, for example, AME are spaced far apart, ERI nearly touch, and ICA are close but separated.<BR><BR>When Dr. Edward Maris wrote his groundbreaking study of the 1794 cents, <I>Varieties of the Copper Issues of the United States' Mint in the Year 1794</B></I>, he proposed names for each variety: "The following names are proposed to distinguish the varieties of the Cent from each other." Examples of these names are The Coquette, The Ornate, Venus Marina, Amatory Face, and Roman Plica. For this variety, number 25 in his scheme, Maris proposed the name "Nondescript." In his second edition he dropped this name for the variety, preferring to have no name.<BR><BR>This variety was the source of some embarrassment to Dr. Sheldon. In his first reference, <I>Early American Cents</B></I>, he noted: "One of the most familiar and best known of the 1794's, and often available in almost any condition desired." Later, in <I>Penny Whimsy</B></I>, he revised his commentary: "The Proskey-Hines and the Hays-Newcomb examples are full MS-65, and these two are supported by at least three more that will score AU-50. The Hays 24 is another source of embarrassment to us because of a failure to document the earlier impression that more of them are available in Mint State."<BR><BR><B>Provenance. </B></I><I>W.W. Hays (1900); Charles Steigerwalt (1906); Charles Zug; Lyman H. Low (3/1907), lot 24, $31; Howard R. Newcomb (J.C. Morgenthau, 2/1945), lot 41, $65; Willard C. Blaisdell; Del Bland; John Adams (Bowers and Ruddy, 1982 FPL), lot 21, $9,500; Del Bland (10/1984); Dr. Allen Bennett.</B></I><BR><BR>It seems reasonable to assume that Hays owned this coin when the Frossard-Hays reference was published in 1893, although no earlier provenance is available.<BR><BR><B>Personality. Charles Steigerwalt </B></I>was a coin dealer who was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on June 28, 1858, and died in that city on March 29, 1912. He purchased the Hays Collection in 1900 and the Phelps Collection in 1901. The 1794 cents from both collections were sold to Charles Zug in 1907. Steigerwalt conducted numerous auction sales and also issued an extensive series of fixed price lists.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coins & Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
Sign In to Bookmark Lot