Offered is a nicely defined and vibrant example of an eagerly sought gold type from the earliest years of the U.S. Mint. The strike is well executed for an early eagle, the borders crisp and uniform around devices that retain most of the finer design elements. Bright due to the stated qualifier, the surfaces are nonetheless pleasing and alternate between olive-gold and medium gold under a light. Given the scarcity of the Capped Bust Right eagle as a type and the strong market demand for extant examples, this example will certainly find many willing buyers among type collectors and early gold enthusiasts.The second date in the United States Mints ten-dollar gold eagle series, the 1796 has an estimated mintage of 3,500 to 4,146 pieces. The official mintage of eagles for calendar year 1796 is 4,146 pieces, but numismatic scholars believe that many of those coins were struck from 1795-dated dies. This was a common practice during the early years of the Mint, as the difficulty in acquiring high quality steel for die production led to the use of dies until they reached their terminal state, whether or not the date on the coins matched the date on the calendar. All 1796-dated eagles were struck from a single die pair, the reverse also used to strike all 1797 Small Eagle coins. With at least one example known in a later reverse die state than the 1797 Small Eagle pieces, some 1796 eagles were actually struck after those dated 1797. The present example, however, is a middle die state and was likely struck in 1796. The exact die state is Obverse State c/Reverse State b, per the nomenclature introduced by John W. Dannreuther (2006). The same die state as the Harry W. Bass, Jr. Core Collection specimen, the obverse exhibits a vertical crack through Libertys portrait and light reverse clash marks within the wreath below the letters TES in STATES.
