1872-Dated Liberty Head Double Eagle Obverse Die. Steel.53 mm tall, 50 mm in diameter at base, 33.5 mm in diameter at die face. Cancelled in an X across face with a chisel. The 1872 date is bold and other details are crisp, though the die face is very lightly rusted. No encrustation or pitting is seen, and the shank remains undamaged. The letter C is stamped on the die shank, perhaps indicative of a Carson City provenance - an 1877-CC described in the January 2002 Bowers and Merena sale (at $23,000) had CC stamped on the shank, but the city circa 1870 was still known as "Carson," leading to our speculation that this is in fact a Mint assignment mark. Additional evidence for this dies assignment to the Carson City Mint is the discovery of a large cache of these in Washoe County, Nevada, in January 1999 during development of a new park on the grounds of the old Carson City Mint-Nevada State Museum. We sold one of those dies, an obverse also dated 1872, as lot 11772 in our August 2012 Philadelphia ANA Auction; another obverse die from that find, badly corroded with the date illegible, appeared in Heritages August 2019 Chicago ANA Signature Auction.<p>There are few more interesting artifacts related to this avidly collected denomination than an actual production die. An example prepared at the Philadelphia Mint (as we all dies at the time) and then forwarded to the storied Carson City facility - as this one likely was - is even more desirable. Whether cherished and studied by a serious student or used as a paperweight by a more casual collector, this piece will be one of the more fun and unique inclusions in any cabinet.From our (Stacks) Old West & Franklinton Collections sale, August 2006, lot 1627.
