1888 $5, DCAM PR(PCGS#98483)
1888 $5, DCAM PR (PCGS#98483)
Spring 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins
- 拍卖行
- Stack's Bowers
- 批号
- 3150
- 等级
- PR65DCAM
- 价格
- 370,432
- 详细说明
- A dazzling specimen with superior striking quality and eye appeal that are more suggestive of a Proof half eagle from the 1890s than one from the 1880s. Yet the 1888 occasionally evidences the same level of superior workmanship as the 1896, 1898 and other issues, as described by John W. Dannreuther in his 2018 reference <em>United States Proof Coins</em>:<p><em>The quality of Proof gold coins continued to improved and peaked with the incredible frost seen on the deeply prooflike coins of the 1890s. Collectors often pay more for the more common Proof issues in the 1890s in the same grade as scarcer coins from the 1880s and earlier. The reason is obvious, as noted many times, the treatment of the dies for all Proof denominations during the 1890s was especially generous in the frosting arena. The fact that hydraulic presses likely were used for all Proofs after 1893 also ensured that the strikes would be strong and even. The 1888 half eagles are often found with these attributes, too, with deep cameo examples occasionally sold.</em><p>This is just such a coin and, as the astute reader would have noted, it also offers greater scarcity than a Proof half eagle from the 1890s. The motifs are boldly frosted and contrast mirrored fields, the latter showing the pronounced orange peel texture that advanced Proof gold collectors find so appealing. Fully struck and expertly preserved, the generally smooth surfaces offer only a tiny lint mark (and it is as made) in the obverse field between the back of Liberty's neck and star 13 as an identifier. This is a glorious specimen, one of only 35 to 45 survivors from a mintage of 94 Proofs for the date.