“The barbers of New York have struck – they demand ten cents for shaving. Perhaps faces in New York are longer than they were six months since.” — The Tennessean, Nashville, May 7, 1836 Satiny and beautiful, this coin is defined by its bold luster, which careens over chiefly brilliant surfaces, lightly toned in gold on the obverse with pastel blue and violet confined to the periphery, while the reverse shows a thinner arc of rim toning of the same colors. With no substantial contact marks and very few individual lines dispersed over the fields, this piece is choice for the grade assigned. Its devices are well struck, and its aesthetic appeal is exceptional. The dies are perfect, making this a well-realized example of the design for type collectors. While just three die varieties of 1836 are known, the recorded mintage is over a million pieces, suggesting that many of the dimes struck in 1836 were not coined from dies bearing that date. The authors of the JR book devised a die emission sequence, derived from die state evidence, showing that “many marriages bearing the 1835 date were struck after 1836 Var. 1.” This obverse was used in only this die marriage, but the reverse was used in an earlier state with an 1835-dated obverse and in a later state with an 1837-dated obverse, a sensible sequence. The order of the other two 1836 die marriages were less intuitive; both used reverses that were married to 1835-dated obverses subsequent to their original 1836 usage. 1836 JR-1 and 1836 JR-3 are of similar rarity, both generally and in top grades. 1836 JR-2 is the most common variety of the year and represents a large proportion of the top grade survivors of this date. PCGS# 4528. NGC ID: 237G.
