1814 Capped Bust Dime. JR-2. Rarity-3. Large Date. MS-66 (NGC).This beautiful 1814 dime displays traces of original patina across otherwise brilliant and frosty surfaces. The obverse peripheries are mottled in bronze and turquoise iridescence, while the reverse is largely untoned save for a dash of plum at the rim. Evidence of clashing shows around the central elements on each side, though the devices remain overall bold. Swelling in the die at AMERICA is virtually diagnostic to this variety, as is the softness at the eagles claws. Smooth and without notable marks under magnification, this is an exceptional representative of both the JR-2 variety and the overall 1814 Large Date issue. The 1814 is the third year of Capped Bust dime coinage since the Mint introduced the design in 1809. The mintage of 421,500 pieces for the 1814 is the highest in the dime series as a whole up until that point, demand for small denomination silver coinage obviously increasing on the part of bullion depositors doing business with the United States Mint. This mintage required the Mint to use three obverse and four reverse dies in five marriages, the most common of which today are JR-3 and JR-4. JR-2, offered here, ranks alongside JR-1 and JR-5 as a scarcer variety of the issue. The JR-2 variety can be identified with the right side of the second 1 of the date under the lower hair curl and a decimal on the reverse after the 10. This particular example ranks among the finest known of the variety, sharing the top spot of the Condition Census with the MS-66 (PCGS) example offered in our July 2015 sale of the Kaselitz Collection. It exceeds even the Lovejoy specimen, graded MS-64 (NGC). It is the very finest example certified by NGC within the JR-2 variety and only a single coin ranks finer among the overall 1814 Large Date issue, making it an ideal candidate for type purposes. <p>NGC Census: 1; none finer (JR-2 variety only).
