1799/8 Draped Bust Silver Dollar. BB-143, B-2. Rarity-4. 13-Star Reverse. AU-55 (PCGS).This impressive and highly significant early dollar offers desirable Choice AU quality for a scarce and conditionally challenging die pairing. Satiny surfaces retain considerable mint bloom and support a dusting of pale silver iridescence that is a bit warmer on the reverse. We even note prooflike reflectivity in the fields when viewed with the aid of direct lighting, especially on the obverse. The strike is expertly centered on both sides with uniformly sharp detail throughout. There are no marks of consequence, the faint adjustment marks over and below Libertys portrait as made and anything but distracting. Light high point rub as befits the assigned grade, and the appearance is very nice for an early dollar that saw light commercial use. BB Die State I.<p>Bowers-Borckardt 143 is the scarcest of the three overdate varieties of the 1799 Draped Bust silver dollar, all of which share the same obverse. In this marriage, one of two for the 13-Star Reverse <em>Guide Book</em> variety, this obverse is paired with a reverse that is always seen with a crack from the border through the curved portion of the letter D in UNITED. Q. David Bowers, <em>Encyclopedia of United States Silver Dollars 1794-180</em>4 (2013), estimates that only 250 to 450 examples of BB-143 are extant in all grades, making this variety twice as scarce as BB-142 and nearly three times as scarce as BB-141. This variety is also the most conditionally challenging of the three 1799 overdates, the typical example grading no finer than VF. The present example nearly qualifies as Condition Census per the Bowers list of notable specimens for the variety, and it is a definite find for advanced early dollar variety enthusiasts.PCGS# 6884.From the Collection of James Allaire Millholland, 1842-1911.
