Beautiful gently mottled olive and steel patina is accented by traces of deep gold and pale blue in the fields, while remnants of vivid red remain in the recesses. A small oval patch of deep tan patina against star 8 confirms that this is the Garrett coin, but the surfaces are essentially free of other identifiers. The strike is very nice, with strong detail on both obverse and reverse.Noyes gives only one die state for this obverse, called "perfect," though it is noticeably flowlined in the fields, which smoothly transition to some dentils. The reverse is the later of two described states. A fine crack connects all letters, STATES OF A.PCGS records include three coins graded finer for the Booby Head type, but this is the only one identified as Newcomb-14, so this is the finest of the variety graded by them. It is ranked as the lone fourth finest example by William Noyes.A lovely gem with a fine provenance.
