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 different obverse dies and 4 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.

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.

At MS64, the pictured coin is tied with one other for the very finest of all 1801 dollars.  This specimen, pedigreed to the Eliasberg Collection, displays a wonderful strike with intensely lustrous surfaces.  Glorious toning comes from its old-time album display, with light golden centers leading to deeper iridescent rainbow shades at the peripheries.