Search For Circulated 1862/1 3CS Is Over!

I finally found a decent 1862/1 3CS to put into my 3CS circulated collection (Littleton album). I can't tell you how many shows, online dealer inventories, and auctions I've trolled over the past 2-3 years looking for one, but I got lucky at my local (Aurora, CO) coin show last weekend. Unbelievably, there happened to be two raw, circulated 62/1's at this show but one of them had one of the letters gouged out and that was an immediate pass for me.

This one was graded by the dealer as AU58, although it's extremely difficult with the "skin"/toning on this coin to really tell if there's any wear on it and I paid around MS60 money for it. In hand the coin looks almost exactly what the pictures below reveal when seen in any sort of halfway decent lighting. The obverse has a just a little bit more blue-green toning on the obverse but the luster is nearly complete subdued. There's a tiny piece of dirt on the rim on the reverse about 6 o'clock but I think I'll just leave it alone. The coin appears to never have been screwed with and has no real problems to speak of. I feel very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time to pick this one up!

One of the most amazing things is how nicely the underdigit is visible with just a little bit of power. You can even see it in the photo below. I love the die clash (albeit it's very common) on the reverse.