BD-3, T-3. Rarity-6. Sharpness of AU. Light pin marks and nicks on both sides. Long known to be the major key of the Capped Bust eagle series, the 9 Leaves reverse is legendary in rarity and desirability. Perhaps 15 to 22 are known today according to John Dannreuther in Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties 1795 - 1834. The reason for the rarity of this die was the immediate failure of the reverse which shows several areas of sinking from defective die steel. One of these is located in the field below the second leaf tip from the right, another at the top of the first T in STATES, and these areas of die failure are common to all survivors. The coin is a pleasing orange-gold with tinges of iridescence in the lustrous fields and the strike is sharp on all but the very center of the design. The marks on the surfaces appear in small clusters, at the fourth obverse star towards her hair, at RTY of LIBERTY down to her face and around her bust. On the reverse a few scuffs are found above the C in AMERICA. While these collectively have kept this particular example from grading, they are on balance not that objectionable.
BD-1, T-31. Rarity-4+. Crosslet 4. Final year of issue, and one of the key dates to the series. The bright yellow gold fields retain lustre. Moderate adjustment marks are found on the obverse but the force of the strike effaced most of their evidence. Precious gold planchets were each carefully weighed with any excess filed off prior to striking. The primitive equipment used for coinage normally reduced these shallow file lines to mere shadows, but often traces remain when closely examined. The strike on this particular coin is sharp on the hair curls and most of the eagle, although the arrows show a touch of striking bluntness seen on the vast majority of survivors of this issue. It is believed that about 80 to 100 of these exist in all grades, with a significant number showing damage or harsh cleaning, the present coin of course, does not.
There is an interesting die defect where the obverse die suffered some kind of injury which appears as raised areas on the coins struck, there are lines or lumps around BER of LIBERTY and the fields show a waviness seen on most survivors.