Nearly all collectors work within the confines of a budget. Coins with significant problems can allow collectors to acquire an otherwise unattainable rarity.

On May 6 Heritage offered a Judd 60 (Original) 1836 Gobrecht, Name on Base dollar at an entry level price for the scarce issue that is collected both as a pattern and alongside regular issue coins.

This one was graded Proof 40 Details by ANACS with a list of modifiers — Damaged, Repaired, Reengraved — and featured a plain edge and Die Alignment IV, with the center of Liberty’s head opposite the right side of F in OF. A rim nick above the A in STATES provides indication that it is Die State E of this deeply studied, brief series dated 1836 to 1839.

Writing about the coin’s flaws, Heritage observed, “Much of each side has been extensively reworked by smoothing, including a large area in the right obverse field,” and despite the labored surfaces, “numerous digs are seen on both sides.”

Still, it provided a rare opportunity for a collector to acquire this perhaps otherwise inaccessible issue with designer Christian Gobrecht’s name prominently displayed on the obverse.

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