Another dime from the year Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific.Another dime of staggering beauty, showing full mint frost and complete cartwheel amidst a florists blend of colors: pale blue, iridescent rose, lemon yellow, sea green, olive, and deep gold across bright silver surfaces. The strike is superb, as fine as any seen, with full feathers and centers on nearly every peripheral star. Some very faint vestiges of adjustment marks are nearly completely struck out in Libertys hair. The surfaces are clean and mark free, just a few wisps away from the grade of the previous coin, though some connoisseurs may find they prefer this one. The die state is nearly the same as the previous specimen, though the clash marks are a trifle more apparent.The provenance of this piece begins with a bourse-table deal with a young, brash John J. Ford, Jr., selling on behalf of New Netherlands Coin Company at the 1951 American Numismatic Association convention in Phoenix. New Netherlands inventory was plump with items from the collections of Hillyer Ryder, Col. E.H.R. Green, F.C.C. Boyd, and other luminaries of the era, and this dime may trace its origin to one of those mystique-rich collections. This dime represented the Heraldic Eagle Reverse dime type in the famous Foxfire Collection, built by Claude E. Davis, MD, and sold in its entirety to the Pogue family. This coin is remarkable for its high grade, its strike, and its eye appeal.
