 1820 JR-1. ''STATESOFAMERICA'' Choice Brilliant Uncirculated. Frosty lustre in the fields and attractive for the delicate gold and blue-gray toning. The strike is a trifle soft on the highest curls of Liberty and the eagle's claws, areas seldom seen fully impressed on this variety. The surfaces are excellent although a loupe will discover a few faint hairlines and a minor tick or two. A clashed obverse die shows outlines of the eagle's wings in the left field. This is a middle die state with the start of the die swelling around stars two to four. Considerable demand keeps this variety off the market as this is a Guide Book variety and popular for the lack of spacing on the reverse legend. Probably within the top dozen of this variety to survive.
The reverse die used to coin this variety was likely engraved in 1814 when it was first used to coin the JR-5 Dime variety of that year. Coinage of Dimes halted after 1814 and was perhaps further delayed by the fire at the Mint in January of 1816, which damaged the rolling mills used to convert ingots or consignments of silver and gold into planchets until 1817. Dime production resumed in 1820, and this reverse die was again pressed into service to coin this JR-1 variety. Remarkably this reverse die was reportedly sold as scrap metal in the 1830's and was eventually purchased by coin dealer Robert Bashlow in 1962. Bashlow took the die to the Kirkwood firm in Edinburg, Scotland and had 536 impressions made in various metals, some uniface and a few with a fantasy obverse. When Bashlow returned to the United States, the impressions and die were seized by the Customs agents and destroyed, despite pleas from the Curator at the Smithsonian to preserve the historic die. Some impressions from the Bashlow venture reportedly survive.
| |
|
