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Bust Dollars 1796 SD, LL B-6. Fine 15

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:5.00 - 10.00 USD
Bust Dollars 1796 SD, LL  B-6. Fine 15

Bust Dollars 1796 Small Date, Large Letters. Bolender-6. Fine 15. Reiver Rarity-8. Holed and plugged at 3 o'clock on the obverse. Light gray toning, though cleaned at one time. The fields show a moderate number of shallow contact marks, light hairlines and a few pin scratches which are toned over and truly insignificant, considering the extreme rarity of this die variety. All engraved features are sharply defined, albeit moderately worn, conducive to our Fine-15 classification. It has substantial visual appeal in addition to its status as perhaps the most important Bolender die variety rarity.<BR><BR>Bolender-6 (BB-64) has a reported population of just two, and considering how apparent the reverse die diagnostics are, it is highly unlikely that other examples would go unnoticed if they entered professional numismatic channels. The severely broken reverse die stands out like a sore thump. Although Bowers encyclopedia references two different known examples, he reports the whereabouts of just one. And to our knowledge, it belongs to foremost authority on the subject, Jules Reiver. The all important reverse of that coin was used to illustrate the die variety for the both Bowers' monumental reference on silver dollars, and also Reiver's specialized reference on early dollars. The one we offer may well be the "lost" example referred to by Bowers. Ex Heritage Piedmont Collection, June 2000, Lot 7737.