1803 Eagle

HBCC#:

3196

Breen#:

6844

BD#:

2

Judd#:

n/a

Pollock#:

n/a

This is an example of an extremely rare die marriage, with less than a dozen known. Of these, this Bass Collection coin is considered the finest. When Anthony Taraszka prepared his 1999 study of the early eagles, he endeavored to determine the emission sequence, a difficult task for this coinage date. One of his techniques was noting the count of edge reeds for every variety. An interesting pattern developed. All 1795 to 1798 varieties have 142 reeds, those of 1799 through 1801 and the first 1803 have 131 reeds, this variety has 130 reeds, and the balance of 1803 and 1804 have 126 reeds.

Provenance:

Purchased from Stanley Kesselman, July 30, 1975. Earlier from Pine Tree's Breen II sale, Lot 212.

Obverse:

Reverse:

Commentary:

"Obverse: Stars Type III, as 1801 2. Not clashed. Reverse: Small stars. Large berries. Cloud space to right of center of E. O centered over cloud space. A rests on feather tip."