The cents of 1813 are scarce in any condition and in fine preservation rare. - Francis Worcester Doughty, The Cents of the United States: A Numismatic Study, 1890Bright mint red remains around the date, LIBERTY on Libertys cap band, and most of the stars, but careful examination reveals that the surfaces retain mint color in abundance. Mellowed to tones that yield gold and olive in isolation, the colors blend in hand to a superb light brown, the color of sunlit honey. The surfaces retain a full degree of frosty cartwheel luster, lending exceptional eye appeal to both sides. Some scattered spots are seen, including one above Libertys hair, left of C in CENT, and within the leaf below A of STATES. The tiny specks at the end of Libertys hair ribbon and among the outside points of star 11 are a bit raised, as are some even more microscopic specks here and there. The surfaces show no significant marks or hairlines, just a few little contact points left of star 8. Those above the head remain from before striking, having received insufficient striking pressure to obliterate them. Stars 6 and 7, along with the top of Libertys hair, the wreath ribbon, and the top of U of UNITED, are somewhat bluntly struck, the product of poorly calibrated planar alignment of the die faces. While Breen described this misalignment as endemic to Die State I, this piece is a product of a later die state, equivalent to his Die State IV. Faint evidence of clash marks are seen below the bust truncation and above NE of ONE, and die cracks are seen at the top and bottom of TED of UNITED, extending to the base of S for the lower crack. A separate short crack that joins the tops of ST of STATES is barely visible.Before this piece emerged into the spotlight in 2008, it had been known but off the market since 1948. It was acquired then from an auction by Syracuse coin dealer Barney Bluestone, listed in a catalog as modest then as Bluestone is obscure today. Under the heading "U.S. Large Cents, SPLENDID COLLECTION," lot 13 was described as "1813 D.222. Unc. Original mint red & lustrous mint olive. One of the best known and of the greatest rarity. I have never seen its equal." Bluestone had been in the business for decades by then and was approaching his 1950 retirement from numismatics. His consignor was a dentist from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania with an eye for quality. The buyer was similarly quality conscious, an active buyer of high grade cents from Mehl, Bluestone, and others in the late 1940s. His collection remained intact for six decades.Fiercely original and remarkably preserved, this cent stands as one of the finest extant from the 1813 mintage. The cents of 1813 have always been accorded status as a semi-key, perhaps not comparable to the 1799, 1804, or 1793, but certainly among the more challenging cents to find for a date collector. Montroville W. Dickeson had a ready explanation for this dates scarcity, writing in his 1859 American Numismatical Manual, "So many of the best of this emission have been altered to 1815 that it is difficult to obtain good specimens." When F.W. Doughty published his work on large cents in 1890, largely lifted from work accomplished earlier by David Proskey, he also noted this dates elusiveness. At the time this coin sold in 1948, a year before Sheldons Early American Cents came out, Doughty was still the most up to date book that covered the cents of this year. Dr. Sheldon confirmed Dickeson and Doughtys diagnosis, calling his number 293 "much the scarcer of the two [varieties of] 1813s and difficult to find in first rate condition." PCGS has never seen any 1813 cent in more first rate condition than this one.
