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Significant examples:
"Choice Brilliant Uncirculated".
Stack's "Reed Hawn" 08/1973:1, $8,000.00 - Stack's "Queller Family"
10/2002:1, $170,000.00, "1794 Flowing Hair. Overton 101a. Choice Brilliant
Uncirculated. Rarity-4. A magnificent specimen and without a doubt, tied
with one other for the Finest Known to us. Far superior to the Overton 101
plate coin ex Downey July 1993, the 2001 Benson sale coin, Pittman's, the
VF Pryor coin, and even the lovely Eliasberg O.101. The 1990 Overton
revision recorded an MS-62 as the finest known then but when the late Russ
Logan published his Early Date survey eight years later the best reported
to him was only a Choice Extremely Fine. The only rival to this coin we
have seen recently is the ex F.C.C. Boyd specimen graded PCGS MS-63. Both
sides of this example are a nice, uniform pale gray in color with a trace
of pale blue and rose iridescence showing. The fields have a pleasing
satiny sheen, as do the central devices. Considerable original mint luster
shows on the obverse encircling the stars. The reverse shows cartwheel
luster that reaches almost into the center of the coin. The piece was
sharply struck, with all of Liberty's hair strands clear. The obverse
stars at left actually show their raised centers. On the reverse, the
eagle's wings are full and the breast feathers show sharply save at the
very center. Many of the leaves in the wreath show inner details, too. The
eagle's head has a full eye, nostril, and other beak details. A wonderful
example of the first year of issue of the denomination. Struck from the
broken state of the reverse, the die cracked from rim to leaf by S1, the
rim through F to leaf ending above a berry. Perfect edge lettering. Some,
mostly hidden adjustment marks in the center of the obverse and at the rim
above stars 11-15."
Recent appearances:
PCGS VF-30. Purchased from
Ed Hipps, 04/1977 - Goldbergs "Benson
Collection, Part I", 02/2001:1719,
$8,625.00, "Overton-101a"
Choice Very Fine. Stack's "65th Anniversary Sale",
10/2000:869,
"Overton 101", unsold
NGC VF-30. Bowers & Merena Galleries' "The Rarities
Sale", 01/2001:190, "O-101", sold
for $8,050.00
NGC VF-30. Bowers & Merena Galleries' "The Rarities
Sale", 01/2001:191, "O-101a", $8,050.00
PCGS VF-25. Superior "Pre-Long Beach" Elite Coin Auction,
05/2003:2527, $8,625.00, "Overton 101"
NGC Fine-15. Superior "Pre-Long Beach"
Elite Coin Auction, 05/2003:2528, "Overton-101", $6,900.00
PCGS Fine-15.
Goldbergs "Fairchild Family Trust Collection Sale", 05/2001:691, "O-101a",
sold for $3,451.00
VG-10. Bowers and
Merena Galleries' Robert W. Schwan Collection Sale, 10/2000,
Lot 1274, "Overton-101", $2,300.00
VG-8 Damaged, Tooled. Heritage
"Long Beach Sale", 10/2000:6797,
"O-101a", $862.50
Sources and/or recommended
reading:
"Early
Half Dollar Die Varieties 1794-1836", Third Edition, by Al C.
Overton and Don Parsley
"Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial
Coins" by Walter Breen
"The PCGS Population Report,
July 2004" by The
Professional Coin Grading Service
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