I quite agree that the Draped Bust, Small Eagle reverse is the nicest U.S. series. I have been collecting it for a long time.” — Jules Reiver to John Merz, November 3, 1986</em>The even golden gray obverse glows, with lustrous cartwheel gliding effortlessly inside the long denticles that frame it. The reverse is closer to brilliant, shadowed with deeper golden gray around much of the periphery, just as lustrous and attractive as the obverse. The reverse denticles are longer at the top than they are at the base, but they still serve to frame the design elements within them despite their asymmetry. The aesthetic appeal is strong, and the initial impression is that of a higher grade. Some minor hairlines are visible, more plentiful on the obverse than reverse, but no serious marks are seen. A group of trivial contact points has gathered beneath L of LIBERTY. The soft spot at the central obverse plays host to some inherent pits that remain unobliterated and a few contact marks that mix among them, including a nick under Liberty’s ear. A few light old scratches are noted, one of which runs vertically across Liberty’s temple, another of which crosses her bosom, and the shortest of which is seen behind her hair bow. Light abrasions are seen below the wing at left, and a trivial edge irregularity is noted on the reverse just left of 6:00. A spot below star 10 appears to be a very light discoloration, tone without topography.Details are strong on most design elements, including stars and the wreath, though the usual soft spot at the centers affects the middle of Liberty’s portrait and the outstretched leg of the eagle. The die state is early, with the lapping lines at Liberty’s throat still quite prominent and what the Bowers <em>Encyclopedia</em> terms the “pellet flaw” under star 9 still visible. Microscopic evidence of spalling is present in the obverse field in front of Liberty’s profile, above the date, and outside of star 16. The die state is early, equivalent to Bowers Die State I.The dollars of 1797 were the last to be struck with exclusively the Small Eagle reverse. Jules Reiver, a student of early U.S. Mint issues who updated the Bolender silver dollar reference in 1998, counted 33 total varieties in the Draped Bust, Small Eagle series: 6 half dimes, 8 dimes, 2 quarters, 4 half dollars, and 13 dollars. In a 1986 letter to fellow collector John Merz, Reiver commiserated on the difficulty inherent in pursuing this group of issues. Of the 33 varieties known to him, he owned 31, lacking the rare 1797 Overton-102 half dollar and the 1796 Bolender-3 dollar, which he wasn’t even sure existed. Though Reiver bought a 1797 Overton-102 half in 1987, he never found a 1796 Bolender-3 dollar. Today, just two specimens of the 1796 BB-62 or Bolender-3 are confirmed to exist.The provenance for this coin has been somewhat confused in the past. It is not the Herbert Bergen coin. The images of that coin in the 1979 Quality Sales Inc. offering of the Bergen Collection and its next appearance in Auction ’84 show a piece with vastly different centering that has left much longer denticles at the base of the reverse than are seen on this coin. In the 2005 Cardinal Collection sale, a provenance was correctly identified as the R.L. Miles Collection. The illustrations of this piece in the April 1969 and May 1974 Stack’s catalogs show an identical tiny mark on the denticles under the left ribbon end, a contact point on the outer curve of D of UNITED, a matching tick within the shoulder drapery, a matching flaw at the outside end of a denticle right of the date, and identical centering on both sides, including a visible die edge on the right side of the obverse.Three die marriages of 1797 dollars are known, each of which represents a different major variety. Among Stars 9x7, Large Letters coins, PCGS has certified just three Mint State examples, one each in MS-61, MS-62, and MS-63.PCGS# 40003.
