And how did the TPG decide a "BB-304"? Recent Bay listing: Description: Genuine (image courtesy PCGS CoinFacts):
The submitter and/or seller, if they are one in the same, is hoping some buyer is dumber than they are.
Interesting. The reverse of this coin is not the Class I, it is the Class III restrike as denoted by the E of STATES being midway between clouds and the lettered edge. The obverse of the coin does not appear correct for a 1804 Class III: The R over the hair is not in the correct position, the stars appear too far apart, S8 seems to be too far from Y. The genuine 1804 you pictured is a Class I. Also, the BB-30X is used by Bowers-Borckardt to denote "Proof-Restrikes". The last one noted in my reference is BB-303 for the 1803 proof restrike. The section on 1804 dollars does not list any BB or other reference numbers for the 1804s at all. This reference is "The Encyclopedia of United States Silver Dollars. 1794-1804" by Q. David Bowers copyright 2013. Maybe someone in the intervening years has assigned BB numbers to the 1804s and I'm just not aware of it. Still doesn't explain how PCGS got the attribution wrong. Obviously a fake, though. I was amused by the seller's plea to eBay to not cancel the listing.
Thank you for the detailed response @Publius2 ! I guess the 2 things that caught my eye 1st were the messed up date and reverse "die break" (?); the "blobs" at the date of course do not help attribution!
Agreed. As I’d just call counterfeit and be done with it. I actually have a “1804” dollar myself. A genuine 1800 that some knucklehead about 100 years ago tried to alter the date on. A damn shame as it’s a beautiful original vf 30 with great surface otherwise. I only paid $100 for it about 25 years ago. But honestly i have it stuck in a drawer somewhere cause the messed with date bothers me that much