1787 CT 1/2P Mail Bust Rt, Muttonhead, BN MS(PCGS#343)

The November 2012 Baltimore Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

6040

等级

XF45BN

价格

16,119

详细说明

1787 Connecticut Copper. Miller 1.2-C, W-2720. Rarity-3. Mailed Bust Right, Muttonhead. EF-45 (PCGS). 139.7 grains. Attractive light brown with intermingled maroon toning, chiefly found at the periphery on the reverse. Little actual wear, good quality planchet shows only faint granularity under a glass, typical of the variety. A bit of dark verdigris is found in the obverse cuirass and denticles, some scattered shallow green pits at bent elbow and Liberty cap on reverse. Good eye appeal, high grade for the variety, far better surface quality than most. This is the late die state, after the date has been ground off and the legends have been weakened, but the central devices remain about as well detailed as Muttonheads come. The topless seated figure on the reverse makes this apparent circulating counterfeit seem especially whimsical. Gary Trudgen has punchlinked these dies to those of the Nova Eborac coppers, meaning they are also linked to the Brasher Doubloons. Excepting Richard Picker as a brief dealer intermediary, this coin has been in only two collections since about the time of the Columbian Exposition.Perhaps the greatest colonial coin cabinet sold in the 1960s, the collection of C.H. Stearns was actually assembled in the 1880s and 1890s, then kept intact by two successive generations before being consigned to auction in Boston, where it was first formed. As noted in the introduction to the Stearns sale, "among Mr. Stearns' contemporaries and advisors were the historically significant names of Mickley, Parmelee, Crosby, and Appleton." Coins with this august provenance rarely appear at auction, except for occasional pieces of Massachusetts silver, for which the cabinet is best known. PCGS Population: 5; 3 finer (AU-55 finest). PCGS# 343. Provenance: From the John "Jack" Royse Collection. Purchased from Richard Picker. Earlier from Mayflower's sale of the C.H. Stearns Collection, December 1966, lot 171. Picker envelope included. PCGS Population: 5; 3 finer (AU-55 finest).