The 1799 cent is the rarest date in the entire cent series from 1793 to date. Knowledge of the rarity of this issue dates back to the 1820s. Joseph Mickley, who was a pioneer U.S. coin collector, discovered that after accumulating a large number of cents that he did not have pieces that were dated 1799 and 1815. The 1799 cent was of especial interest to him because that was his birth year. Mickley was able to obtain an example of the rare date, but from that time forward, the coin has had a deserved reputation for rarity. There are two major varieties of the 1799 cent, an overdate and a regular date. The overdate is far scarcer, but both are difficult to locate. Many counterfeits have been made over the years, often from altering the date of a 1798 cent. Why is the 1799 cent so scarce? There are several reasons. First, most of the coins produced in 1799 were dated 1798. Once more, the old dies were too good to throw away. Second, by this time the mint had been importing cent planchets from England. The cent blanks were transported by ships which frequently had seawater in their holes. If the blanks were bathed in seawater, they were usually corroded. The mint frequently cleaned the blanks, but the damage had been done. The cleaned planchets were more prone to corrosion while in circulation. Third, the dies were out of alignment in the coin press. Sometimes the obverse die was tilted toward the date, which made that feature stronger, but the usual position was toward the word “LIBERTY” which left the date weak. The weak dates frequently wore off comparatively quickly which made the coin uncollectable for early collectors. Fourth, there were few coin collectors in the United States prior to 1857. Therefore few of the coins were set aside. They wore out in circulation. It is interesting to note that the finest known 1799 cent came from England where a collector there carefully preserved it.
That collector was a 1000-IQ person. I assume it had to be in Mint State, that's 100% something I'd like to have. If only he could have lived to see a MS-62 1799 cent have a wholesale of $900,000.
The EAC people grade it AU. I am sure that it will bring over $1 million if it comes up in a major auction.
Are the EAC grading standards different than PCGS or NGC? I've heard they're quite strict. Also, to the right buyers, it could bring $1,000,000, but one thing holding it back is the CPG. AU58 CPG is $384,000 - which still a gigantic amount of cash, so I would predict $350,000 to $450,000 for final hammer price. You never know with auctions, though - aka an auction's true beauty. One last question: is it graded?
There are very few instances where the EAC grade matches the NGC or PCGS grade in an EAC grade based auction, even if the coin has a CAC endorsement. I’ll post a cent in the future that is PCGS graded MS-63, Brown with a CAC green sticker which is graded AU according to EAC. As for the finest known 1799 cent, price guide opinions mean nothing because you are dealing with a finest known example of a well known rarity. The EAC and the registry collectors will be competing for it, if they are aware that it is available. For once TPG opinions will take a backseat. Call it MS or call it AU. It’s the best, and that’s all that matters.
I am generally not a fan of EAC grading because it is useless for commercial purposes. You can dump on the term commercial, but when it comes time to sell, generally collectors want a good or at least a fair price. If something is EAC graded and you use any of the current price guidelines to price it, you will get less than it’s worth over 90% of the time. In other words, if you sell a coin that most people would grade EF for VF money, you will be short changed. I would add that EAC dealers don’t price their offerings that way. they charge all the money. The one great thing about EAC grading is for problem pieces of which there are many in early copper. Commercial grading kind of gives them the shaft on a slab label. EAC explains the problem in some detail and provides a net grade, which is useful for pricing. Once more EAC grading can be “brutal.” Some problems they point out don’t amount to much in my opinion.
