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154
Clapp, Breen, & Noyes Plate Coin
173
1798 S-172 R2 Style II Hair, Small 8. PCGS graded MS-63+ Brown.
CAC APPROVED
.
Very attractive lustrous medium steel brown and light
chocolate with slightly darker steel brown toning on the highpoints. Frosty
lighter steel brown and reddish tan faded down from mint color can be
found in protected areas on both sides, especially on the reverse. This cent
offers great eye appeal. The only marks, and they are trivial, are a thin nick
on the forehead and another under the eye, neither visible without a glass.
M-LDS, Breen state V early. A narrow rim cud break covers the top of the
Y in LIBERTY but there is no rim cud break at the second A in AMERI-
CA. An intermediate die state not mentioned by Breen. Both sides of this
cent are plated in the 1931 Clapp reference on the cents of 1798 & 1799, in
the 1991 Noyes reference, and in the Breen encyclopedia. Graded MS60
and CC#2 in the Noyes census (with only 2 mint state examples known),
his photo #23046. Bland says AU55 and tied for CC#3.
Our grade is
MS60.
The attribution and Newcomb-Reynolds provenance are noted on
the PCGS Secure label.
Pop 1; none finer at PCGS for the variety (PCGS
# 36086)
Estimated Value.......................................................................... $20,000-UP
Ex Howard R. Newcomb, J. C. Morgenthau & Co. #458, 2/7/1945:242-Joseph
H. Spray, Stack’s 4/1978:86-C. Douglas Smith-Dr. Robert A. Schuman, Mc-
Cawley & Grellman Auctions/Superior 9/5/2004:390.