1877 50C J-1540 PR(PCGS#61882)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Commissaire-priseur

Stack's Bowers

Numéro du lot

3475

Grade

PR62

Prix

19 200

Description du lot

<strong>Obv:</strong> A bust of Liberty faces left, with hair in a bun and wearing a star tiara inscribed LIBERTY. Thirteen stars encircle the border with the date 1877 below. Notably the truncation line shows more curvature than commonly seen, and the face of Liberty is more expressive, both confirming the hand of Anthony C. Pacquet, as opposed to George T. Morgan or William Barber. Rev: A simple eagle with outstretched wings and boxy shield on its breast, grasping a scroll inscribed E PLURIBUS UNUM in its beak and clutching an olive branch and three arrows in its right and left talon, respectively. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is above, the denomination HALF DOL. below. Fully brilliant surfaces are lightly hairlined, yet nicely contrast watery fields with lightly frosted devices. A few contact marks here and there serve as provenance markers for this unique surviving specimen from the second set of dies supplied by Anthony C. Paquet for this pattern type.<p>The first pair of dies for Judd-1540 broke quickly and all known examples from those dies display a prominent die crack extending from stars 5 through 1, the date, and extending into stars 12 and 13. Aside from the absence of the die crack, the date positioning relative to the point of the bust is also different between the two sets of dies. Harry Bass is credited with discovering the existence of the second set of dies because of this piece, and the passage of time has failed to unseat it from it's unique status. Objectively more attractive without the die crack, we expect pattern collectors will eagerly pursue this impressive specimen with a robust pedigree.