His collection specialties were coins in general and during his lifetime he possessed one of the most outstanding collections in America. -- ANA Historian Jack W. Ogilvie on H.O. Granberg, 1962.Stunningly lustrous, with an extraordinary satiny character on the obverse and light reflectivity on the reverse, a bright flashy gem throughout. The obverse shows tantalizing glimpses of bright blue and violet creeping out from the denticles, contrasting with light golden toning that nears brilliance at the center but is deepest inside the rims. The reverse commingling of pale gold and silvery brilliance is set off by variegated deeper colors at the extreme periphery. The strike is superb, with just a few areas of highly localized weakness such as the center of star 8, the tops of 50 in the denomination, and the centers of the arrowheads. The fields are both original in their freshness and free from distractions. Our magnified examination finds just a few spare lines here and there and a fine scrape under UN of UNUM. If a finer or prettier 1820 half dollar exists, we couldnt begin to suggest where to find it. The dies appear perfect, with no cracks or defects.The ultimate specimen for a date collector, struck from dies that are known for being "usually sharp and well executed" according to Overton. This specimen is beautifully toned, profoundly pedigreed, and approaches the aesthetic ideal. Just 622 more 1820 half dollars were struck than 1807s of the Capped Bust type, leaving this year with the third-lowest mintage in the series; only the mintage of the key 1815 was smaller. The 1820 has always attracted interest and demand beyond other dates in the series; Q. David Bowers reminisced in the Eliasberg catalog that "old-time dealers will recall that years ago, when unsorted Capped Bust half dollars were routinely encountered in quantity, mostly in grades from VG to VF, it was the practice to pick out those dated 1820 as having the most premium value of any date after 1815."While PCGS has split its population information for 1820 half dollars into five different categories, there is not another MS-66+ coin certified in any of those divisions, nor are any certified finer. Among specimens of this particular variety, no clear competitor is found for finest known honors. An NGC MS-65 was sold by Heritage in January 2007, but it was not of this quality. The Eliasberg coin was certified as MS-61 (NGC). If there were a tie, a provenance to the great H.O. Granberg, the legendary connoisseur Harold Bareford, and the D. Brent Pogue Collection might be seen as a suitable tiebreaker to decide the finest specimen. Few collections from the first quarter of the 20th century were grander than that of the underappreciated H.O. Granberg, and few connoisseurs had such refined taste as the estimable Harold Bareford. The D. Brent Pogue Collection, though peerless, stands on the shoulders of giants such as these..
