1799/8 Draped Bust Silver Dollar. BB-141, B-3. Rarity-3. 15 Stars. AU-55 (PCGS).Expertly preserved and bathed in light silvery gray, the peripheries provide hints of a darker undertone. Well centered and equally well struck with minimal weakness, this specimen provides an excellent vehicle with which to explore this intriguing variety.<p>Created out of necessity to correct (haphazardly, as it turned out) the accidental inclusion of two extra stars on the reverse, the 15 Stars Reverse silver dollar has been a coveted variety ever since it was first popularized in the mid to late nineteenth century. The variety was first elevated in interest through the work of Philadelphia collector J. Colvin Randall, who frequently bought and sold individual coins and collections for years. He assembled a large enough collection of quarters, half dollars, and dollars by variety that he was able to arrange them in a "Type Table," the first of its kind in American numismatics. He partnered with fellow collector and friend John W. Hazeltine to publish the type table, but unbeknownst to Randall, in 1881 Hazeltine released it under the title, <em>Catalogue of John W. Haseltines TYPE TABLE</em>, completely omitting Randalls name, a name that persists to this day. The Randall-Hazeltine type table records the first instance of this variety, which it described under Hazeltine-3: "obv. same as No. 1; rev. 15 stars, 2 of them entirely concealed by the clouds on extreme right and left, the points just barely emerging." While Randalls name has unfortunately not been given the credit he is due, the Type Tables numbering system was adopted by Bolender in his landmark work on early silver dollars, thus Hazeltine-3 became Bolender-3. Today better known as Bowers-Borckardt 141, while somewhat scarce in lower states of preservation, the variety is conditionally scarce starting at the AU level and above. With the beautiful even patination providing additional focus, this is a desirable example for discriminating silver dollar connoisseurs. From the Collection of Thaddeus A. Tatum III.
