1799/8 Draped Bust Cent. S-188. Rarity-4. VF-20 (PCGS).<strong>Type:</strong> Draped Bust.<p><strong>Design:</strong> Obv: A draped bust of Liberty faces right with the word LIBERTY above and the date 1799 below. Libertys hair is tied with a ribbon, the ends of which are plainly evident at the back of the head. Rev: A wreath surrounds the denomination ONE CENT, the base of the wreath bound by a ribbon tied into a bow. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is around the border and another expression of the denomination 1/100 is below.<p><strong>Weight Standard:</strong> 10.89 grams.<p><strong>Diameter:</strong> 29 mm.<p><strong>Die Variety:</strong> Sheldon-188, Breen-2. Obv: The 1799/8 overdate, and definitive for this obverse die, which also appears in the NC-1 pairing. Rev: The pair of leaves inside the wreath at the letter T in CENT are clear of the branch stem, the adjacent pair on the outside of the wreath overlap the stem. The first berry to the left of the ribbon bow has a long stem, and the outer pair of leaves below the letters ME in AMERICA is stemless. This reverse also appears in the S-186 pairing.<p>Along with NC-1, S-188 corresponds to the 1799/8 cent listing in the <em>Guide Book</em>.<p><strong>Die State:</strong> Noyes A/A, Breen II. Obv: Lightly clashed in the field areas before Libertys throat and near the ribbon ends. Rev: Clashed in the wreath to the right of the letter E in ONE.<p><strong>Edge:</strong> Plain.<p><strong>Mintage: </strong>Although federal records indicate that 904,585 cents were delivered during calendar year 1799, the vast majority of those coins were struck from 1798-dated dies. A small percentage of that total is believed to represent the mintage for the S-188 and NC-1 overdate varieties; the S-189 perfect date coins are thought to have been struck in 1800 since most examples are on the same dark planchets as many of the 1800-dated varieties.<p><strong>Estimated Surviving Population for the Die Variety:</strong> Rarity-4: 118 to 158 coins in all grades.<p><strong>Strike:</strong> This is a well balanced mid grade example with good centering on the reverse; the obverse is drawn trivially to 9 oclock with no denticulation along the left border. All major design elements are bold, plenty of sharper detail remaining within Libertys hair, drapery and the wreath.<p><strong>Surfaces: </strong>Deep olive-copper patina with tinges of reddish-rose to the high points of Libertys portrait. Microgranular surfaces are lightly pitted throughout, especially on the obverse. Wispy pin scratches on Libertys cheek, neck and in the reverse field above and below the word ONE are noted. A tiny dig in the field between the top of Libertys head and the letter T in LIBERTY is the only sizable mark. However, both sides are overall smooth, pleasingly so for a moderately circulated example of this challenging variety.<p><strong>Commentary:</strong> Any 1799 cent is an object of desire. Even before the large cents demise in 1857 caused a sea change among American collectors, this date had been spotlighted as a rarity. Joseph J. Mickley was first termed "the father of American numismatics" by William E. DuBois, the Philadelphia Mint employee whose curatorship of the Mint Cabinet gave him a central role among American collectors in the early 1840s and for decades thereafter. DuBois recalled Mickleys entree into the numismatic scene in the April 1871 issue of the <em>American Journal of Numismatics</em>: "Many years ago, when he cared no more for coins than the rest of mankind do, he heard that the cent of 1799 was very rare. That was the year he was born in. A cent of that year he must have; and he got it." Mickley died in 1878, but the fame of the 1799 cent lived on and it is still celebrated as a classic rarity in U.S. numismatics.<p>The vast majority of 1799 cents -- irrespective of die pairing -- are well worn or damaged into near oblivion. This is particularly true of the 1799/8 overdate, of which no Mint State examples have been certified by either PCGS or NGC. The finest survivor from the Sheldon-188 dies is the famous Baldwins-Naftzger-Streiner-Parrino coin most recently certified AU-58 by PCGS and graded EAC AU-50 in both the Bland and 2015 Noyes census listings. (The NC-1 overdate is represented only by well worn examples in EAC grades of Fine and lower.) The present example is finer than most and, although not included in the Bland census, Noyes grades it F12(VF20) Average Minus with a ranking of CC#11. A find for the advanced large cent enthusiast or <em>Guide Book</em> variety collector, and sure to see spirited bidding.PCGS# 1446. NGC ID: 2247.PCGS Population (both die marriages of the 1799/8): 2; 8 finer (AU-58 finest).From the ESM Collection. Earlier ex Lindesmith Collection (per NN50); New Netherlands Sale #50, April 1957, lot 1121; possibly to Bebee Stamp and Coin; Tom Reynolds; Harry Laibstain, Baltimore, 2003. In the New Netherlands catalog, the lot is further provenanced to London Dealer W.S. Lincoln and the March 2, 1897 Frossard Sale of the B.H. Collins Collection. It is given as Lot 9, however, the 1799/8 cent in the sale was at lot 638, with a provenance to a private collector in Richmond, Virginia.<p>
