NGC Now Attributing Early US Gold Varieties

Expanding upon its role as a leader in variety attribution for United States coins, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation has added early federal gold coins to the many series that it will recognize comprehensively with variety attribution numbers. All quarter eagles, half eagles and eagles struck prior to the August 1, 1834 weight reduction may now be submitted to NGC under its VarietyPlus® Service to receive Bass-Dannreuther (BD) numbers.

These early United States gold coins were a specialty of the late Harry W. Bass, Jr., and his variety studies in this field were published as a sylloge by his research foundation in 2001. Numismatist John W. Dannreuther then added the few varieties that Bass lacked to create a complete catalog of all die marriages titled Early U.S. Gold Coin Varieties. It is from this reference that early gold coins are now attributed by BD varieties.

Submitters who wish to have their 1795-1834 United States gold coins attributed by BD numbers may do so by selecting NGC’s VarietyPlus option on the submission form. A fee of $15 is charged for this service in addition to the selected grading tier. For those dates having only a single die marriage, the BD variety is applied automatically at no additional fee. A complete listing of BD varieties, detailing those which require a fee and those that do not, may be found on the VarietyPlus webpage at NGCcoin.com.