Pleasing silver gray surfaces with traces of lustre surrounding the stars on the obverse and the legend on the reverse. Well centered with most details sharp except where diminished by light wear. A short scratch is hidden among the hair curls with another, on the reverse, above the eagle’s head. Another tiny nick is noted in the right reverse field. This is a very pleasing example despite the minor imperfections noted. 16 examples are listed in the Census with this coin tied for second place. This obverse die is known for both 1820 B-1 and B-2 varieties. The reverse was also used for 1820 B-5 and 1821 B-4.

Perfect dies.

Browning-3 of this year is not a rare variety, however, remains quite scarce. During his collecting days, Russ Logan was unable to obtain a suitable example for his collection. The B-3 marriage is one of very few quarter dollar varieties he was unable to acquire. Among Capped Bust quarters, this was the only non-Proof die marriage originally identified by Browning that is not included in the present collection. Regarding the 1820 B-3, both obverse and reverse dies were only used for this single variety.

From our sale of the Eliasberg Collection, April 1997, Lot 1376.