5449

1854-O $3 MS62 NGC.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:15,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1854-O $3 MS62 NGC.
<B>1854-O<$3> MS62 NGC.</B></I> Breen-6349. This issue, the only New Orleans Mint three dollar, is readily available in lower grades, scarce in AU, and incredibly elusive in Mint State. A search through Heritage's auction records reveals that this is only the seventh time in the last dozen years or more that we have offered a Mint State specimen, most of them in MS60 or MS61. This piece is tied at the top of the heap with another MS62 NGC piece that we offered way back in 1994. Our records of other major auctions show only a single other appearance of an MS62 coin, in a Stack's auction from May 1994. This piece is clearly in the Condition Census of certified pieces: NGC has graded three pieces in MS62, with none higher, while the highest PCGS-graded example is a sole specimen in MS61 (5/06). The Bass Collection specimens were AU58 and AU55 examples, for purposes of further comparison.<BR> This problem-free piece shows luscious and lustrous reddish-gold surfaces, with no singularly mentionable abrasions, just light field chatter consistent with the grade. There are two varieties, this being the more lightly impressed of the two. On the obverse, only portions appear of the JBL initials on the bust truncation, and S OF is weak. The 85 in the date is weak. Die lapping on the reverse has erased portions of the bowknot, the leaf left of the date, and the right bow ribbons, but the mintmark is fairly strong. <I>Coin World</B></I>'s monthly <I>Coin Values</B></I> publication shows a value of $30,000 for this largely unheralded, yet unimprovable rarity.<BR><I>From The Alpine Zephyr Collection.</B></I> <BR><BR><B>Importan