Bill Jones' Eary Dollars
1801

Owner Comments:

Most collectors who have spent a fair amount of time studying the early Bust dollars with the Heraldic Eagle reverse know that 1799 is most common date in the series followed by 1800. Many collectors assume that the other dates, especially those from 1801 to 1803 are about equal in rarity. In reality I discovered that the 1801 dollar is a "better date," which is more difficult to locate, especially in the higher levels of preservation.

Despite the fact that the reported Red Book mintage of 54,454 for the 1801 dollar is higher than 41,650 figure shown for the 1802 dollar, the 1801 is scarcer. The late Walter Breen suggested that the solution to this anomaly is that some of the dollars delivered in 1801 were actually dated 1800. Similarly it has been theorized that some 1802 dated dollars were delivered in 1803 and even 1804. During the early years of the U.S. mint the mere passing of a calendar year was no reason to discard a perfectly good coinage die. In many cases dies were used until they failed.

The 1801 dollar displayed above is a very nice example for the EF-45 grade. It has a considerable amount of mint luster in the protected areas and the eagle on the reverse even has full breast feather detail, which is rather unusual for this design. As such this piece fits in nicely with the other pieces in this date run set.