EAC 2026 Reg

THE TERRY DENMAN COLLECTION PART II

LOT 115 1838 N-9 R3 AU58+ . Lustrous medium brown and light olive with a couple streaks of slightly darker steel brown at star 7. Sharply struck with very nice eye appeal. Looks mint state but there is a trace of friction on the very highest points of the devices. The only marks are a dull nick on the bust tip and two small planchet flakes in the dentils at the bottom of the reverse (as struck). EDS, state a, with smooth fields and “phantom dentils” on the rim from under the 1 to star 1 and from star 3 to above star 5. Similar “phantom dentils” show on early strikes of the N-6 variety of this year, and what caused them is a mystery. The fields on the obverse are very slightly reflective.  Ex Chris McCawley-Dennis Mendelson, Superior 2/3/1991:555-March Wells, McCawley & Grellman Auctions/Superior 2/7/2000:2046-Terry S. Denman Collection  FINEST N-10

LOT 116 1838 N-10 R1 PCGS graded MS65 Red & Brown . Lustrous mint red fading to bluish steel and olive brown, at least a third of the faded mint red remaining on both sides. Sharp and satiny with great eye appeal. The only defect worthy of mention is a faint old fingerprint around stars 9-11. EDS with a very light die crack reaching down from the dentils right of the M in AMERICA arcing toward the left side of that M but fading out before reaching it. Your cataloger has never seen an example that did not have at least a trace of this crack, although an uncracked example may exist. The early state of this variety is easily confused with the N-9 variety because you expect to see a more obvious die crack reaching to the M, and when you don’t see the crack you default to the N-9 attribution. That must be what happened on this cent, because it was misattributed as N-9 by all the previous owners (including Ted Naftzger), and the error was perpetuated by the census takers William C. Noyes and Del Bland who both list this piece in their condition census for N-9. Noyes calls this piece MS65 and that makes it tied for finest known honors with one other piece in his census for the N-10 variety, his photo #28730. Bland says MS65+, which places this piece as CC#1 in his census for N-10. Our grade is MS64+, close to MS65. A great cent, just a challenge to attribute in this die state. 37208.65/13093938

Ex Philip G. Strauss, Stack’s 5/1959:356-Emanuel Taylor 10/1960-R. E. “Ted” Naftzger, Jr.-Naftzger Estate, McCawley & Grellman Auctions/Goldbergs 2/1/2009:425-Chris McCawley-Terry S. Denman Collection

www.earlycentsauctions.com

69