IMPORTANT CHOICE AU 1797 DIME

JR-1, R-3. 16 Stars.

1797 Dimes are seen with two major variety types: the 13 Stars and the 16 Stars. The latter is more available but it becomes very difficult to locate in the higher AU grades and it is extremely rare in full Uncirculated. The unquestionable finest known, graded MS66 by PCGS, recently sold for $199,750 as Pogue I: 1035.

This very attractive slider is very lustrous and it shows an early state of the obverse die with the familiar crack at the date not yet fully formed and developing into a cud. The detail is sharper than normal for the variety with sharp hair and feather detail and only minor weakness on the left facing star radials. The obverse is a light gold with a band of deeper reddish-gold at the right; the reverse is attractive with a golden center framed by a ring of rich natural reddish-gold. This coin has just the barest trace of friction on the high spots keeping it out of an MS61 to MS62 holder and I would wager that it is more attractive than the few 1797 16 Star Dimes which are available in MS60 and MS61 holders.

An underwhelming PCGS MS61 example sold for $31,725 as Goldberg 6/15: 1121 and the last PCGS AU58 to sell at auction brought $16,100 all the way back in March 2007.

This piece would fit into a world-class set of Dimes or it would work nicely as a solid representative of the Draped Bust Small Eagle reverse type of 1796-1797.

CAC has approved just this one coin in AU58 with three finer (62, 64, and 66).