1803 $10 Extra Star Reverse MS(PCGS#88565)

Spring 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3166

Grade

AU58

Price

33,600

Lot Description

This warmly colored golden-orange and deep honey example retains appreciable mint finish in a softly frosted texture. The strike is universally bold to sharp, and the moderately marked surfaces reveal no singularly mentionable blemishes. A couple of adjustment marks (as made) within and around Liberty's portrait are so faint that they are easily overlooked at most angles. BD Die State g/b.<p>Due to the extra star feature, the 1803 BD-5 is one of the most readily attributable and eagerly sought varieties in the entire Capped Bust Right eagle series of 1795 to 1804. Although this die marriage had been confirmed prior to that time, Harry W. Bass, Jr. appears to have been the first numismatist to notice the extra star feature on the reverse when he acquired an example in 1966. This discovery was the catalyst that launched Harry into his career of die studies of gold coins from 1796 to 1834. The extra star is much smaller than those used in the primary obverse and reverse designs, so it seems likely to some observers that it was added to the reverse intentionally by a Mint employee as a way to identify this die. This is only a theory, however, and as Dannreuther so eloquently puts it, "This is another early gold mystery that defies explanation."<p>With 90 to 110 coins believed extant, BD-5 ranks behind only BD-3 as the second most frequently encountered die marriage of the 1803 eagle. As a perusal of our past sales makes clear, the finest examples typically offered are certified AU-58, as here. With Capped Bust Right eagles elusive in today's market, this well preserved example of a popular die marriage would make an ideal addition to an advanced type set or specialized early gold collection. For accuracy, we note that the extra star on the final cloud, while present, is soft here due to strike. It will require magnification and some persistence to appreciate.