1794 1C Head of 1794 S-22 Bent Lock, BN MS (PCGS#35531)
March 2021 U.S. Coins Auction
- 拍卖行
- Stack's Bowers
- 批号
- 4010
- 等级
- MS64+BN
- 价格
- 473,186
- 详细说明
- An Exceptional 1794 S-22 Cent
Ex W.W. Hays, 1900
A Contender for CC#1
1794 Liberty Cap Cent. S-22. Rarity-1. Head of 1794. MS-64+ BN (PCGS).
A stunning coin that has been virtually undisturbed for decades. The overall color is gently mottled mahogany and chocolate brown with just a trace of steel on the highest points of the hair. Both sides are uniform in this respect and immensely appealing. On the reverse, traces of faded red can be seen in the peripheral fields at a certain angle to the light. The dies are Noyes’ State B/C, with fairly sharp flowlines through the fields, but without the extension of the obverse die crack through the 4 into the bust. On the reverse, the prominent lump at the top of the wreath is clearly formed. The flowlined fields have created lovely mint luster that is generously retained on this superb piece. Surface marks are few and trivial, save for a gentle bump nestled into the lines of the hair. A small natural flaw on the reverse rim at 3:00 is as made, and helpful for confirmation of this coin’s impressive provenance.
Noyes lists this coin in the CC#5 position in his Census, based on the fairly low-quality black and white image pulled from our offering of the John Adams coins in 1982. In fact, this coin is considerably nicer and probably a contender for the CC#1 position, even if tied with the Foster Lardner and Henry Miller coins, which we have good reason to doubt, having this coin in hand.
This one seems to have better definition through the central hair than the Miller and Lardner coins, though this piece is also an earlier die state than either of those two. The surface quality looks virtually identical to those pieces, or perhaps superior to one of them. The noted mark in the hair might allow the Miller coin to edge this one out of first place by just a hair, but the images available do not suggest that the other coins have the luster of this one. It would be interesting to compare them side-by-side.
The Noyes CC#3 coin is a piece that we have been able to compare to this one directly. Inexplicably, it is the Dan Holmes coin. This one is easily of finer quality than the Dan Holmes coin, a fact suggested by the higher PCGS grade as well.
Noyes’ CC#4 coin is at the ANS, so we have not seen it in person. From the images available, it looks similar to this one and better than the others. That said, photographs have their limitations and, in any event, the fact that it is in the ANS holdings, likely for good, takes it out of meaningful consideration for the Condition Census of availablecoins.
This all said, the present coin is given the lone CC#1 position in Walter Breen’s Encyclopedia of United States Cents, which features the census work of Del Bland. This seems to be a far more appropriate ranking for this coin and better reflective of the quality seen when examining it person.
It has not been offered publicly since our landmark 1982 offering of the Adams Collection, and we are delighted to be able to offer it once again. It is truly an outstanding coin and will undoubtedly be found more than satisfactory by even the most discriminating collector. In fact, the list of collections it has graced over more than a century is most remarkable, and a virtual who’s who of collectors known for superior quality coins. The list is given below in the impressive provenance, and begins with W.W. Hays who marked this coin on the edge in white, “H-28.” While Hays would eventually assign his own attribution numbers (43, in this case), he marked his own coins with the earlier Maris numbers, explaining the “28.”
Provenance: From the W.W. Hays Collection, 1900; Charles Steigerwalt, 1906; John Zug; Lyman Low's sale of March 1907, lot 43; Howard R. Newcomb Collection, Part I, February 1945, lot 58; our (Stack's) Milton A. Holmes Sale, October 1960, lot 1361; Frank H. Masters, Jr.; RARCOA's sale of May 1971, lot 49; Denis Loring; John W. Adams; our (Bowers and Ruddy's) Fixed Price List of the Adams Collection of 1794 Cents, 1982, lot 12; David C. Putnam; the present consignor.
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