Skipping to 1836

After getting my 1834 cent in the Naftzger middle dates sale, I took a breather. I had spent half my available funds on three nice coins, and I didn't have a target 1835 in mind. I already had an MS66RB that I bought after seeing it at the Summer 2005 Baltimore show. And frankly, none of the Naftzger 1835s appealed to me enough to put money into them. None of them had a slab grade as high as mine either. So I waited more than 50 lots before bidding on some 1836s.

The coin I upgraded is a nice N-6, the variety with a cud at 1:00, over star 8. It's an MS63BN, but quite nice for the grade. My primary target was an N-3 graded MS66BN. N-3 is the variety usually seen with a cud at 11:00, over star 6, making a nice pair with the N-6. I was also looking at a really nice MS66RB early die state N-3 without the cud. Both sold for more than my preset maximums.

The only remaining 1836 of interest to me was an MS66RB N-6. It stands alone as CC#1 in both the Bland census and the Noyes census for the variety. And it is that nice. The bidding got going, but happily for me, did not last long. I was the high bidder at just over half my preset maximum!

The coin has more brown than red on both sides, but certainly has enough red to merit the RB designation. The strike and luster are quite good. There are no contact marks to speak of, but the hair under the L appears to be incomplete due to a planchet flaw. As is typical of my coin photographs, the photo seems to emphasize the tiniest imperfections, which you'd hardly notice without very close scrutiny. The tiny light marks are dust, and the line between the date and star 1 is on the holder. This really is a superior coin.