Owner Comments:
From a decade perspective, wanted to start the type set with a difficult coin, so chose the first year of issue for the Classic Heads, and knew the Crosslet 4 was the only way to go. Also, the type set would begin with Philadelphia… and end with Philadelphia.
This coin was a challenge for me. It was purchased a year after I had acquired my first rare gold coin, and it alone would amount to spending more than double the amount I had spent on all of the previous four coins I had collected, combined.
The darkened denticle at one o'clock, in the old NGC holder it was in, stood out very prominently, and was a visual turnoff for me. I searched elsewhere, looking for other examples of the coin that might be more to my liking. What I found was this was a very difficult coin to acquire… surprisingly so! The few examples I came across were not as clean, and were of lower grade. So, I found myself coming back to this coin — over and over, for over a whole year — trying to rationalize buying it, especially since it seemed so expensive to me. The dealer came down a little on price when I chatted him up on it, and I finally committed myself to buying it. It would anchor the collection.
Immediately noticed about this coin, when it was received, was its green-yellow gold. Compared to Carson City gold — reddish-copper, very much so — this Classic Head coin glowed with a metallic-yellow halo. Literally. Particularly attractive about it was its reverse side. Very clean. The shield — so uniform in its horizontal lines, and near equally-uniform in its vertical lines — always reminds me, even to this day, of how pleased I was with the reverse side of the coin when it first came in.
Newly reholdered in an NGC Scratch-Resistant EdgeView Holder, which features the four cushioning prongs, the darkened denticle is much less prominent and is a small reminder that some coins pick up certain "wear souvenirs" along their journey in life.
In addition to all of this, with this coin secured, suddenly I realized I was competing with the "big boys" of this "Hobby of Kings," and I was now resolute — steeled, really — on fulfilling the goals of my collection, high prices be damned!