1799 Draped Bust Dollar - 9/8 15 Reverse Stars

Coin Details

Auction Record

Description

This is the 1799/8 overdate variety of the 1799 Draped Bust Dollar. Dies were expensive, and a serviceable die left over at the end of a year was often kept and re-dated rather than destroyed: the new digits were punched directly over the old ones. The earlier date survives underneath wherever its strokes fall outside the digits punched over it, which is why an overdate is read from the shapes that do not belong to the date as printed. The effect is in the die, so every coin struck from it carries the same remnant in the same position. Any mintage given below counts the entire issue for this date and mint, not this variety: a variety comes from one die or a few, and how many coins they struck was never separately recorded. The 1799 Draped Bust Dollar - 9/8 15 Reverse Stars represents a Philadelphia Mint issue from the Draped Bust Dollars 1795-1804 series. The 1799 Draped Bust Dollar issue as a whole had a mintage of 423,515; how many coins carry this variety is unknown. The obverse features Liberty facing right with draped bust and ribbon-bound hair, a portrait traditionally credited to Gilbert Stuart, and the reverse displays a heraldic eagle, shield on breast, gripping an olive branch and a bundle of arrows, with the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM on a scroll in its beak. Irregular and regular date varieties. Multiple die states documented for the heraldic eagle type. Struck in 89.2% silver, 10.8% copper, weighing 26.96 grams, 40 mm in diameter, with a lettered: hundred cents one dollar or unit edge. Cataloged as PCGS #6883.