Uniform dusky faded red gives way to faint bluish steel on the high points. Satiny surfaces show pleasing luster and very little evidence of any handling. A couple of small obverse marks including a tiny one left of the truncation appear as made. The same is true of a small reverse rim anomaly over the A of STATES.The later of two dies states described by Grellman, this one his State-b, with an extremely faint die crack passing through MERIC on the reverse. Though light, it is unmistakable on this high grade specimen. Though several examples of the date are graded at this level or higher by PCGS, only two other coins are identified as the relatively scarce Newcomb-8. This one, from our Milton Holmes and Norweb family collection sales, is considered one of the two finest. Grellman called it tied for CC#1 in his cataloging of the Naftzger collection, while Noyes ranks it as the lone CC#2 coin in his database.
