My first early dollar was a 1799, raw, with polished surfaces. Although it has retoned nicely over the years I have always wanted one in a graded holder, in particular one with the 15 stars reverse, a big whoopsie that the engraver tried to cover up by swelling the adjacent clouds. I believe this one is BB153, the "irregular date," which is pretty subtle, but the obverse diagnostics match up and it appears to be die state II as described by Bowers, when the die was close to failure and the reverse center struck up softly as a result. Sharp eyes will spot a rim issue on the rev next to U; this is a planchet imperfection not damage. I'll post the grade in a couple of days.
All I can go by is my ANA Grade Guide. Looks closest to Fine-15 but could be XF-40 using my knowledge. Wish there was something better than a "like" button. Wonderful coin. James
VF-20. It could be argued that the technical grade is higher because the obverse die was sinking in the center which resulted in a loss of detail on both sides. Still, from the market perspective, VF-20 is all it can get.
