1831 Capped Bust Dime, Mint State-67 (PCGS)
John Reich 1, Superb Multicolored Gem

John Reich 1 - Stars 2 - 3 close, stars 8 - 9 close, first 1 high, upright of second 1 under curl. Reverse shield with "three pale gules" (three lines in each vertical "red" stripe), and top arrow shaft detached. (Rarity 1). Struck from an earlier die state as the obverse does not yet show the coming die crack as noted by Davis et al., however, the reverse is beginning to show stress from the third use of this die, including very fine die cracks from the E in UNITED to the top left corner of the scroll, from the rim to the top of the A in STATES to the scroll above R, and from the far left olive leaves to the rim.

Naturally vibrant gold, amber, violet, blue and green toning washes over original, lustrous surfaces in a perfect blend- a stunning combination that provides a benchmark for what a Gem early silver coin can look like. Near fully struck with Liberty's fine hair detail complete, and all of the eagle's feathers sharply defined. Only the reverse dentils along the upper left rim show poor definition. Under a 10x loupe some trivial contact marks become barely visible, and although a few more in number than I would like to see on a MS-67, they are well camouflaged and are simply overwhelmed by the intense color.

PCGS reports four 1831 Dimes graded MS-67, with a single MS-68 finer. The MS-68 is a JR.2 and last sold publicly as part of the James W. Lull collection (B&M 1/2005: 668 @ $37,950).