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Message:: [QUOTE="900fine, post: 1211559, member: 6036"]I would exercise extreme caution with this coin. My reasons are similar, but slightly different, from Marshall's original post. I have concern with the die crumbling around the obverse rim. Let's recall the conditions at the fledgling US Mint in 1793 were very primitive. They had poor die steel and very little experience making dies; thus, the dies had a distressing tendency to crumble and crack after very little use. And here's the key issue... Numismatists have long tracked and catalogued various stages of die breakage. Certain coins show the early die state (with few problems), some a middle die state (with some new problems, plus further deterioration of the first problems), and late die states. According to Breen (and several photos I've checked), the eBay coin does NOT match any known die state. In known S-5s (inluding Breen's plate coin), serious die crumbling occured over the obverse BER before die crumbling messed up the obverse beads between 1 o'clock and 3 o'clock. That's not what this coin shows. That said, these pieces experienced a lot of difficulty both in minting and thereafter; obviously, the eBay piece has been hit pretty hard. It's quite possible the issues on the right obverse rim have nothing to do with die state but rather trauma of strike, planchet, or just 218 years of livin'. In that case, casual observation reveals nothing for me to call this one a fake. Be careful ![/QUOTE]