A trans-Atlantic traveler. Both sides glow with luster and originality, with hints of copper toning and transparent silver-blue highlights over rich yellow surfaces. An exceptional piece, especially for this grade level. A batch of adjustment marks is still visible at the central obverse, and the absolute central reverse shows some slight related softness. Other details are fully realized, including every obverse star center and most reverse details. The surfaces show marvelous quality and originality, with far fewer hairlines seen than usual and no substantial marks, just a shallow abrasion close to the bust parallel to star 12 and a short scratch beneath Liberty s eye that is easily missed. The overall appeal suggests a higher grade. This coin appears to have no provenance prior to 2008 when it was cataloged by the well-known English auction house, Baldwin s Auctions Ltd., for a sale of primarily world coins to be held in conjunction with the New York International Numismatic Convention, where it was discovered by the eternally resourceful New York coin dealer, Eric Streiner. While many of the best early federal coins have come from Europe, and England in particular, the stream of such specimens that traveled westward from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century has slowed in the modern era. Occasionally, however, such miracles do happen, and coins as desirable and original as this one sometimes appear. Having been spared from the numismatic marketplace for so long, this coin is what a bookseller might call unsophisticated, never tampered with, never improved, just made better through beautiful and benign neglect. Unbelievably, the only finer example of this underrated date may be found in the previous lot.
