Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 26066353, member: 101855&quot;]1796 is one of the very cool dates among early U.S. coins. It was the only year in which it is possible to collect a year set of coins in all 10 of the denominations that were authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. Furthermore some collectors believe that there were &quot;presentation&quot; or specimen coins produced so that one could form a &quot;1796 Proof set.&quot; Be advised that just getting all ten of the coins in any condition is quite an undertaking. The half cent, quarter, half dollar and the gold coins are all very scarce to rare. </p><p><br /></p><p>I have been working on a date set of cents from 1793 to date. After looking at a number of coins and having been &quot;chasened&quot; by the prices, I decided to drop back a bit for the 1796 cents. Both the Liberty Cap and the Draped Bust designs were issued that year. I found this Draped Bust piece at the recent FUN show. It is a raw, ungraded coin. The die variety is an S-102, which is rated as an R-4, 76 to 200 known. It is believed that these coins were made in the fall of 1796. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1659590[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I had though about purchasing an example of the 1796 Cap Cent after I had finished the date set. The Cap Cent is much scarcer than the Draped Bust pieces, especially in high grade. I spotted this piece at Lakeland and decided to buy it. It&#039;s not a great coin, but it cost less than $1,000 which suited my pocketbook and my objectives. These coins were struck in April and May of 1796. This piece is an S-81. As a variety it is a little more common than the Draped Bust piece above. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1659595[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The weakness on the reverse is not unusual for these pieces. For whatever reason designer / die maker, Robert Scot, decided to make the bust of liberty in higher relieve than it had been for the 1795 Liberty Cap cents. The result was there was not enough metal to fill both dies which often resulted in weaknesses in the cent of the obverse nad reverse. </p><p><br /></p><p>There was also an MS-61 graded piece on the floor. It was weak in the centers with the word &quot;CENT&quot; not fully defined. The price was more than 20 times what I paid for this one.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in