1795 $1 BB-52, Centered Bust MS(PCGS#39995)

February 2025 Showcase Auction - U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

1108

Grade

MS65

Price

204,000

Lot Description

Wonderfully prooflike fields dramatize the boldest strike that would even impress the perfectionist. This coin's splendid prooflike brilliance recalls that of other known examples of the issue including Anderson-Dupont:2493 and Amon Carter:213. This led the cataloger in our (Stack's) 68th Anniversary Sale to speculate that these dies may have received special repolishing to enable the striking of such powerfully reflective coins late in its production life. The prooflike qualities were also highlighted when this example graced our (Stack's) historic sale of the Harold Bareford Collection in October 1981, where it was called "a gem with prooflike surfaces." Careful examination finds only a few light adjustment marks on the lower body of the eagle and adjacent clouds, as well as along the right border on the same side. A beautiful champagne-pink iridescence yields to blushes of warmer reddish-gold and powder blue at the peripheries. A couple of ancient handling marks are lost in the boldly reflective obverse field, the overall appearance temptingly close to pristine, and essentially so in a Draped Bust silver dollar. Centering and strike are both exceptional with complete hair and feather detail. BB Die State V.<p>The Centered Bust variety is the second of just two of this type made from 1795-dated dies. The first, BB-51, has the portrait shifted slightly to the left. While numismatist have traditionally accepted an identical rating of Rarity-2 for these two varieties, Harry E. Salyards assigns a revised rating of Rarity-3- to BB-52 in his new (2022) reference <em>Eagle Poised on a Bank of Clouds</em>. The author's assessment squares with your cataloger's (JLA's) experience, for appreciably more examples of the BB-51 Off-Center Bust variety have crossed his desk over the last 25 years. The present offering is for a remarkable condition rarity that is far and away finer than the typically encountered circulated survivor. It is tied for CC#4 in the Salyards Condition Census, and also ranked CC#4 in the Winter 2023 revision to Stephen J. Herrman's AMBPR for Bust dollars. Both rankings are based on the coin's earlier certification as MS-64 by NGC. Extraordinary quality and eye appeal in an example of this perennially popular first year issue that represents the Mint's transition from the brief Flowing Hair series of 1794 to 1795 to the longer-lived Draped Bust silver dollar design type.