A pleasing orange-gold coloration covers most of the coin with a couple areas in a more coppery shade, providing a slight visual contrast. Some light scratches and contact marks are noted on the portrait and in the fields, but some of what at first appear to be defects are actually the afore mentioned die scratches and polishing marks.What sets this coin apart from others is that it was produced with a medal-turn orientation instead of in the normal coin-turn orientation - you have to rotate the coin horizontally instead of vertically in order to view both sides of the coin in the correct perspective. <br /><br />A variety not noted in any of the reference works, the only mention of it we could find was in Harry Bass Jrs notes referring to the unusual characteristics of his specimen of this date where he writes, "Die orientation normal on this particular pair, but the same die pair also exists misaligned to medal-wise orientation." This from our sale of Part III of his collection in May, 2000, Lot 16. A search through our sales records as well as those specimens sold by Heritage in recent years reveal only two examples of this rotation from more than 70 offerings - oddly, both of those coins were damaged, and in neither description was the unusual rotation of the piece pointed out.<br /><br /><br />Obviously prepared either hastily or by a novice hand, the dies used on this coin is were not well finished, particularly on the reverse. Poorly executed, the fields of both sides are littered with heavy die scratches and polishing marks, a berry from the wreath is firmly attached to the letter T in UNITED, and many letters in the legend are crudely sunk and improperly aligned. The strike, too, indicates careless production with details in Libertys hair not completely struck up and a very noticeable softness to the left branch of the wreath on the reverse.The individual characteristics of this particular coin and this die pairing aside, even the "normal" 1853-D dollar is quite a scarce item. From an original mintage of a miniscule 6,583 pieces, one can only wonder how many survived the troubled financial times of the South during the Civil War looming just a few years ahead. PCGS estimates a probable survival of about 125 pieces in all grades, raw and certified, with their service over the years evaluating the date 103 times (including resubmissions) and encountering only 8 examples in a higher state of preservation than this one. Certainly an intriguing item of interest to many advanced collectors, but probably particularly to Southern Gold specialists. <br />,,PCGS# 7523. NGC ID: 25BW.,PCGS Population: 5; just 8 finer through MS-65. ,
