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Sale 78
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Lot 1673
1856 Upright 5. NGC graded MS-66. CAC Approved. The finest known specimen and the only example from either service graded MS-66. Boldly struck and glittering with frosty mint luster throughout. The Upright 5 is an extremely undervalued variety, and the actual scarcity is far beyond the Slanted 5 variety. Housed in an Old Style Holder.
The fully brilliant example we now hand over bidders beats (from a technical angle) practically all of the 1856 Type 3 Dollars of either type that have passed through the various grading services. Unlike the usual survivor with its diminished central impression left by a weak blow of the (sometimes worn) dies, this handsome coin is very sharp from top to bottom, center to periphery, including what some might deem "assertive" full legends and date on the reverse since they are very clear.
Less than a year after the "Type 2" or Narrow Head dollars went into circulation, all concerned knew that the design required changing: Specimens were already being brought to the Mint for recoinage, some with dates hardly legible. And many coins newly struck had the same fault, adjust the presses as you will: weakness in centers so that obverses looked worn, dates blurry.
According to the Breen Encyclopedia, "As soon as Longacre could be spared from completing the experimental dies for the 1855 bronze pattern cents, Mint Director James Ross Snowden ordered him to begin work on a modified design for the gold dollar. Diameter would remain the same: Snowden, only a few years later, referred to the "evident evil" of simultaneously having in circulation two coins of the same denomination but different sizes. But the obverse head not only had to be of lower relief, it had to be arranged differently to avoid placing relief areas opposite reverse relief details wherever possible. (This same technical requirement necessitated the shift in 1858 from Flying Eagle to "Indian" cents.) Longacre's solution was to adapt the $3 coin design. On the new dies, legend was nearer border, head farther from letters and different in plumes' shapes, locations, and proportions. No impressions remain of experimental dies of this design. The new design was adopted Jan. 1, 1856, remaining unchanged through the end of 1889, when the denomination was abolished.
"Mintage began with a small group using the half-dime date logotype with upright 5. For unknown reasons, the next two dozen reverses all had dates from the quarter-eagle logotype with slanting 5." This explains the great rarity of the Upright 5 coins.
A memorable year, 1856: Over 600 small-diameter pattern cents with a flying eagle motif were made for distribution to congressmen, newspaper editors, and others of influence. This set the stage to discontinue the vemerab;e copper large cent, minted since 1793, which had become expensive to manufacture and was widely viewed as being cumbersome to handle. At the same time, coin collecting was growing rapidly, and hundreds of people became interested in the hobby. Within two or three years an 1856 Flying Eagle cent became worth $1, then $2. The Mint began making restrikes, and over the next several years a nice trade was developed in these. In 1856, the San Francisco Mint struck its first dimes and its only Type 2 gold dollars.
Estimated Value $20,000-UP.
Ex Heritage Auction #1158, Lot 5329.
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| Realized $30,550 |
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