1881年自由帽半美分 PCGS MS 66。1811 Classic Head Half Cent. Cohen-1, Breen-1. Rarity-4. Mint State-66 RB (PCGS).R. Tettenhorsts 1811 C1 was the star of the show.- Rick Coleman, Penny-Wise,May 1998Were this coin a common date of this design type, its visual appeal and near perfect preservation would still amaze. The strike was forceful enough to bring the portrait into exacting detail while creating a bold contrast between the devices and the smooth, lightly reflective fields. Cartwheel luster rolls around both sides, bringing life as it passes the mint red highlights that persist within and around design elements. An inventory of flaws is brief: a thin line from star 2 to right of star 6, a single contact point outside of stars 10 and 11, and a speck atop the final A of AMERICA. Nearly every star showcases full relief at its centers. A few on the left are well struck but not fully realized, and stars 5 and 6 are somewhat flat. The lower wreath, opposite the highest relief of Libertys hair, is likewise not fully brought to detail.
The trivial softness on the letters of AMERICA reveals that axial misalignment of the dies was at fault rather than a lack of gusto. If this coins quality is capable of telling a story about the spirit with which it was produced and preserved, it appears to have started special and remained that way. While the prooflike Norweb coin was studied by Walter Breen early enough in his career to make it into the notebook that became his work on Proof coins, this coin evaded his lens for some decades later. Little else separates their striking quality and potentially special circumstances of their production.Coined from the earliest known state of these dies, this coin displays all the delicate relics of the dies production that would be lost on a lower grade coin. The portrait shows many criss-crossing raised lapping lines, and others are seen descending into the field from her nose and lips, stretching into the fields above and below the bust truncation, and covering the reverse fields in a mostly vertical fashion. There are noteworthy raised die lines right of the top of U of UNITED and spanning from below C of CENT to the wreath below CA. This is Breens Die State I and Manley 1.0.Most specialists in the half cent series would be overjoyed to own any 1811 with a modicum of visual appeal.
Most are well worn, and few among them are beautiful. "Most 1811 C-1 half cents are in grades below Fine," according to Manley, and the somewhat more common Cohen-2 is even scarcer in high grades than this variety. PCGS has graded a Mint State example of this date on just five occasions. The two best, of which this is the finer, were in the Missouri Cabinet Collection: this MS-66 RB (PCGS) Cohen-1 and a MS-65+ BN Cohen-2. The McGuigan Collection includes an MS-62 BN Cohen-2, and an MS-63 BN (PCGS) was sold in April 2014. The Norweb Cohen-1, the only example of this variety that could rival the present example, does not appear to have been certified or offered publicly since 1987. NGC has never graded a single example of this date in Mint State.Even before cannon had been pointed at Fort Sumter, 1811 half cents were a desirable commodity. Montroville W. Dickeson, as early as 1859, described them as "rare and valuable, as they are to be found but in few cabinets." Today, it remains a key to the series. Rick Coleman summed this coins appeal well when describing its first place finish at the 1998 Half Cent Happening: "R. Tettenhorsts 1811 C1 was the star of the show. As Mike George commented, Once you see that coin, it changes everything. I was pleased to have it present. There is nothing like a proof like, Mint State, red brown 1811 C1 to ensure that the Happening is a success."
