Considerable mint red remains throughout the fields though the most vulnerable areas as well as the higher points of the motifs have mellowed to light olive brown. Satiny surfaces with strong luster and very nice eye appeal. The surfaces show almost no signs of handling beyond a couple of microscopic marks well away from the prime focal points.Fine lines through UNITED are very faintly visible if one knows to look for them, identifying this as Grellmans Die State-a/b. The much more prominent lines on the reverse behind the E of ONE are strong. The fields are lightly flowlined but the dentils and overall sharpness are not affected.Though a few 1853 cents have been graded equal to or finer, this coin ranks highly in the Condition Census for the variety. Bob Grellman called it CC#2 in his cataloging of the 2009 Naftzger sale, the Noyes Census has it tied for CC#1. The coin we sold in Part I of the Twin Leaf Collection was Noyes CC#3 coin, but it graded MS-66 RD and did have stronger color than this one. Still, this is among the very finest known of the variety and a superb piece overall.
