Beginning with the year 1801, production of Draped Bust dollars was significantly curtailed.  Accordingly, relatively few dies were needed to carry out production, and the total mintage ultimately employed only 2 known different obverse dies and 4 known different reverse dies.  These combined to create 4 different individual die varieties.  The editors of the Redbook currently consider all of these 1801 varieties as sufficiently similar that they are all grouped into a single Redbook type.  Approximately 2,600 specimens remain of all 1801 dollar varieties combined, making 1801 the single scarcest date of all Draped Bust Large Eagle dollars.

While the Redbook recognizes only one category for 1801 dollars, the various varieties do present a number of distinctive features.  The two obverse dies utilized for the year each bears a distinctive date style - described as either a “wide date” or “close date” - most noticeably displaying dates either “widely” separated or “close” to Liberty’s hair curl.  Three of the four reverse dies for the year are rather normal in appearance, but the fourth is quite distinctive in displaying a missing or “broken” right foot on every letter “T.”

Wide Date

Close Date

Broken T Reverse