 1796 Br.1 (R-4). Choice About Uncirculated. A second example of this scarcer die pairing of the two known pairs used to coin 1796 Quarters. The strike is better than average on Liberty and the stars, with strong definition on her curls. The denticles are also bold surrounding the edge. On the reverse, fine and shallow adjustment marks are present through the clouds and eagle's head, with traces elsewhere through the legend. As always, the eagle's head is softly struck. The toning is quite pretty, with a blush of pastel blue, red and russet mixed over the fields and rims, while the centers are brighter silver-gray. Minor hairlines are present on both sides. A thin die crack extends up through the '1' in the date, and the lump from the denticle nearly touches the post of the 'E' in LIBERTY.
Identifiable by a shallow, small pit in the field between Liberty's eye and the ninth star. The edge reeding is typically weak, apparently imparted by the collar as opposed to the Castaing machine as long believed. Early Half Dimes, Dimes and Quarters have notoriously weak reeding as the strike from the screw press was scarcely able to bring up the design, and rarely imparted a complete reeded edge to any of these early coins. Early gold issues often suffered a similar fate of incomplete reeding. Further studies on collars and reeded edges at the early U.S. Mint are pending. A satisfying example of this important first year type issue.
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