Henry, cant I just look at my old coins? - Dr. Henry W. Beckwith, on Henry C. Hines doorstep, as recounted by C. Douglas Smith, Penny-Wise, July 1978 With its superb frosty originality and historic provenance, this would likely be the most desirable Sheldon-267 even if it were not ranked atop the Condition Census of the variety. Its surfaces host a substantial amount of remaining mint color, radiating from Libertys portrait, highlighting her hair, and backlighting the letters of LIBERTY. The reverse shows even more red, and the golden steel brown where mint color has faded still shows a good deal of lively color when passed by the bold lustrous cartwheel. A trio of tiny marks line up on Libertys bust and a very well hidden nick affects the bottom left serif of E of ONE, but no other significant marks are seen on either side. A small area of discoloration blends in below RI of AMERICA. Some peripheral design elements are a bit softly struck, owing mostly to the clashed and lapped state of the dies. Clash marks remain subtly visible before Libertys profile and above her hair bow. On the reverse, vestiges are even harder to find, though some may be found at the right wreath stem. The light crack above AME places this die state equivalent to Breens Die State III.Large cent collectors have revered no collection formed over the past century more than that of Dr. Henry W. Beckwith. "He endeavored to obtain [coppers] in the state in which they left the dies, as nearly as possible, and with the original red color of a freshly minted coin," S. Hudson Chapman noted in his preface to the April 1923 Beckwith sale. "I think I may say that he achieved great success," Chapman wrote, "he has more specimens with more traces or altogether of the original color of the metal than any set that I have ever seen." He picked the perfect example of this date to include, as no gem 1805 cent of any variety has survived with as much mint color as this one.There were only 119 coins in the Beckwith sale, neatly described on 22 pages. Beckwith told his friend Henry C. Hines in a March 7, 1923, letter that he had no duplicates as "I always kept those pretty well cleaned out" and admitted in the same letter why he decided to sell his collection: "The plain unadulterated truth is I need the money. That is, I dont feel as if I can afford to keep so much money tied up. I have succeeded in bringing together a collection which suited my fancy and I cant go much further without going into minute varieties and that I dont want to do." Chapman described this cent as "partly red, shading to a light olive." Nine years later, James G. Macallister used similar language, terming it "Original red shading to a beautiful golden brown. Rare condition." It did not sell at auction again for another 64 years.After Dr. Beckwith sold his coins, his passion for them continued undiminished. He was 53 when his coins were sold; Dr. Sheldon later related that part of the reason he sold was his physicians realistic sense of his likely life duration, but he ended up surviving into the 1950s. As told by C. Douglas Smith, recalling Sheldons story, Dr. Beckwith kept track of where his coins went after they were sold. Henry Hines was a particularly active buyer at the sale and "Hines was pouring over some of these coins, one dark rainy night ... and downstairs, like the raven tap-tap-tapping at the door, came a knocking. And lo and behold, it was Dr. Beckwith, and he said, "Henry, cant I just look at some of my old coins?"
