1798 $1 BB-82 MS(PCGS#40006)

December 2025 Showcase Auction - The James A. Stack, Sr. Collection Part I

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

20004

Grade

XF40

Price

16,800

Lot Description

A very pleasing example of this final Small Eagle dollar issue. Mottled light to medium gray with attractive splashes of pale olive, rich gold, and hidden pastel green. A good deal of mint luster persists in hidden areas of the design, particularly on the reverse. The strike is bold and even, well centered with denticles framing both sides. Only trivial scattered marks are seen, and the eye appeal is really excellent for the grade. The die state is typical, Bowers Die State III, Salyards Die State II, with a strong crack atop the reverse through the second T of STATES. With rich originality and above average sharpness, this stands as a particularly nice way to represent this final emission of the Small Eagle type. Harry Salyards' research points to this variety, the only one to combine a 13 star obverse and a Small Eagle reverse, being struck in early April 1798.<p>Though accompanied by a Wayte Raymond envelope listing this as Lot 344, this envelope was probably swapped later in time. It appears to be the envelope for Lot 344 from Raymond's January 1944 sale, where Lot 344 was described as "1798 Knobbed 9. Heraldic Eagle reverse. Very fine and rare." Needless to say, this coin is a 1798 dollar but not that one.