1761/51-Mo Pillar Dollar - big day for the collection

Omegaraptor

The Seattle PNNA is coming up in two weeks and I was going to look for a cob or pillar 8R for my collection. Looks like I don't have to anymore.

Was at my LCS by chance and something caught my eye in the display case - they had just gotten in a Pillar Dollar. I asked if they could take it out so I could take a look at it. It has two Chinese chopmarks on the obverse (can any chopmark enthusiasts or someone who knows Chinese ID the character?), some remnant mint luster on the reverse, and some stuff going on underneath the date. This coin has it all... well, the surfaces aren't the most original I've ever seen, but for the $175 I paid, this was a no-brainer purchase. These have really shot up in value in the last few years. (Trust me - I was prepared to pay a good bit more in Seattle!)

SimonW

I would have bought that in less than a second. Great find!

bidask

Seemed a good buy

jgenn

I doubt that there are very many 1761/51 dies. Here's my example -- you can see that the top of the 6 is quite different.

TwoKopeiki

@jgenn said:
I doubt that there are very many 1761/51 dies. Here's my example -- you can see that the top of the 6 is quite different.

I was skeptical, as well, but looks like NGC also recognizes that obverse die with slight doubling on the 7 and a line top left of the 6 as 61/51:

Omegaraptor

@TwoKopeiki said:

@jgenn said:
I doubt that there are very many 1761/51 dies. Here's my example -- you can see that the top of the 6 is quite different.

I was skeptical, as well, but looks like NGC also recognizes that obverse die with slight doubling on the 7 and a line top left of the 6 as 61/51:

Yeah... I saw this example on Heritage. I searched and this was the only other example I could find from this die pair.

Coin weighs just a hair under 27 grams, which is dead-on for an authentic 8R with slight circulation wear.