1799/8 Draped Bust Cent. S-188. Rarity-4. EF Details--Rim Repaired (PCGS).This is a handsome, pleasingly original example of the key date 1799/8 Draped Bust cent. Dusky olive-copper surfaces are hard and tight with no porosity and just a few inconsequential marks scattered about. Otherwise boldly defined, the strike is trivially off center to 9 oclock on the obverse. There is no denticulation along the left border on that side, the right border with bolder denticles than those seen on the reverse. The PCGS qualifier concerns evidence of edge filing along the right obverse border. Breen Die State II.<p>This is a key date issue in an absolute sense, and the most famous in the entire large cent series except for the various issues dated 1793. Although Mint records indicate that 904,585 large cents were delivered during calendar year 1799, the vast majority of those coins struck from 1798-dated dies. The actual mintage of the 1799-dated issue is unknown, although presumably limited given the rarity of examples in numismatic hands.<p>Sheldon-188 is the more readily obtainable of the two known die marriages of the 1799/8 cent. Bland, Noyes and the Breen encyclopedia (2000) are all in agreement that the finest known example of this variety is an EAC AU-50. Seven coins in various EAC VF grades comprise much of the remaining Condition Census. The coin offered here is graded EAC VF-25 by both Bland and the Breen encyclopedia and is ranked as CC#5 by the former, tied for CC#3 in the latter. Noyes grades this piece EAC VF-20 and ranks it as tied for CC#6. From the Collection of Thaddeus A. Tatum III. Earlier ex Dr. William H. Sheldon, 1936; Morton Stack; unknown intermediaries; Harmer Rookes sale of August 1970, lot 200; William T. Anton, Jr.; Joe Flynn Rare Coins; John R. "Bob" Grellman, July 1976; Denis W. Loring. March 1985; Superiors sale of the Jack H. Robinson Collection, January 1989, lot 395; Denis W. Loring, June 1991; Dr. Eugene Sherman; our (Bowers and Merena) sale of October 2000, lot 119; Heritages sale of the Walter J. Husak Collection, February 2008, lot 2191; Jon A. Boka. Collector envelope with attribution and provenance notes included.
