Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents

Obverse 29. Hair is still coarser and in lower relief. The fifth lock is severed. Plain shoulder loop. Button on lower comer of the cap is diagnostic. The end of the pole almost touches a dentil, point to point.

Reverse JJ. Lowest berry is partly embedded in the left bow. Notch in the left edge of the. leaf below C(E). Inner leaf of the pair below D is only a fragment. The top leaf pair on the right branch is broken away. Lowest leaf on the right is unusually close to c(A). Each branch has four berries inside and three outside. ONE CENT is farther right than usual. The denominator and fraction bar slant down to the right with the final 0 nearly touching the border. N is above U-I. A is above T-T and leans left. A is above M.

Die states: I. Clash marks from leaves in the hair and from hair in the left branch and central reverse. No defect over ICA. Rare.

II. Obverse is ground down to remove clash marks. The hair has gaps between the upper locks. Hollow areas appear in the hair, notably on a line between the chin and lower comer of the cap. Two parallel "trenches" (concave regions on the coin), from lips to rim and from nose to rim. Reverse reground to remove clash marks. Defect (concave on coin) between ICA and rim.

III. Thin crack (raised on the coin, as always) along the upper obverse "trench."

IV. Thin crack along the lower obverse "trench." Rim crumbling above A(T) and the space left, and above TE(S).

V. New clash marks (Sheldon called them cracks) between upper edge of the cap and the hair.

VI. Cracked from between the lips through the upper lip, cheek, and temple.
Equivalents: Maris 10, "Pyramidal Head." Frossard

6.Doughty 30. Hays 14. McGirk 6A. Ross 9-H. Chapman 46. Sheldon 57. EAC 47. Encyclopedia 1668.

Rarity 1.

Remarks: An early die state may exist with normal leaves, struck before clashing. Obverse is often weak, especially in states II and later. This reverse is similar to reverse LL and was probably made the same day.

Believed delivered August 19-29, over 100,000 pieces.

Larry Briggs has one (ex 1975 EAC "Cape Canaveral" sale) with completely doubled edge lettering, once reading obverse up, once reading reverse up. FOR overlaps ONE and vice versa. Perhaps this is the example which was reported by Tom Morley in his 1974 Penny-Wise article "Oddballs and Oddities." Another in the same article was described with doubled edge lettering. Dan Trollan reported two examples with the space between HUNDRED and FOR missing. These are in the Jim Winterbauer and Ben Tennyson collections.' An example from the John W. Adams collection (illustrated above) has a clip at K-4. An example in the 1983 ANA sale (lot 4554, misattributed as Sheldon 59) was apparently over struck on a brockage. See "Oops!" chapter.

Condition Census:

M5-64 With a thin planchet defect on top of the head. Major Sir Rowland Denys Guy Winn, M. c., 4th Baron St. Oswald • Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd. (London) 10/1964: 150 $2,100 • Stack's • Dorothy Paschal. Dr. William H. Sheldon, 4/19/1972 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr., 2/23/1992 • Eric Streiner • Jay Parrino (The Mint) • unknown • Superior Stamp &; Coin 9/1997: 38 $44,000 • Dr. Allen Bennett, 1/20/1998 • Walter Husak.
Obverse and reverse illustrated in Noyes.

MS-63 Major Sir Rowland Denys Guy Wmn, M. C., 4th Baron St. Oswald • Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd. (London) 10/1964: 151 $1,820 • Lester Merkin • Stack's • Frank H. Masters, Jr. • Rare Coin Company of America 5/1971: 69 $3,250 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr. • New Netherlands Coin Co. 11/1973: 378 $6,000 • Del Bland • Dr. Robert J. Shalowitz • Del Bland, 1/4/1985 • Bertram Cohen • Andrew M. Hain.

MS-60 Willard C. Blaisdell, 1941 • J. S. Gensheimer • Stack's 2/1951: 401 $37.50 • Willard C. Blaisdell, 2/17/ 1975 • Del Bland • Myles Z. Gerson • Del Bland • Hanks & Associates • Robert Barrett • Hanks & Associates.

MS-60 Turned up in the mid-1950s in the Midwest • New Netherlands Coin Co. • New Netherlands Coin Co. #50, 12/1957: 957 $315 • Harold Bareford, 9/13/1985 • Herman Halpern • Stack's 3/1988: 76 $5,775 • Anthony Terranova • R. E. Naftzger, Jr., 2/23/1992 • Eric Streiner, 1/1994 • Chris Victor-McCawley (CVM). Obverse illustrated in Morley.