Sandon's Nineteenth Century Circulating Issue Type Set
H10C DRAPED BUST, LARGE EAGLE (1800-1805)

Owner Comments:

This entire type can legitimately be regarded as rare. It is harder to find than any other denomination featuring the Draped Bust/Heraldic Eagle design and when found is often well worn and/or impaired. I have owned a Good to Very Good details, damaged and heavily cleaned 1801 for many years and tried to have it graded for inclusion here, but NGC classified it as having an "altered surface" and would not encapsulate it.

I purchased this 1803 large 8 "Redbook" variety, the less scarce variety for the year, at a March 2023 auction for more than I would have preferred to pay. (Unfortunately, NGC doesn't distinguish between the large and small 8 varieties without the submitter paying an attribution fee.) Its color is slightly light and it is lightly hairlined, resulting in the "cleaned" description. It is otherwise a decent example of this difficult type.

Photos courtesy of Stacks Bowers Galleries.