(1652) Shilling New England MS(PCGS#13)

Spring 2023 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

2224

等级

AU50

价格

1,101,722

详细说明

Magnificent 1652 NE Shilling Noe 1-A, Salmon 1-B Among the Finest Known Ex Donald Partrick Undated (1652) NE Shilling. Noe 1-A, Salmon 1-B, W-40. Rarity-6+. AU-50 (PCGS). 70.2 grains. A truly impressive example of this coveted issue. The surfaces show a mottled patina of grey and light peach tones beneath a faint golden iridescence. Glints of olive and navy texture show within the punches and suggest original luster. The planchet is imperfect but largely round, drawn to a soft point at the lower obverse. The punch on that side shows the typical softness at the very upper border, though is otherwise sharp and within a strongly defined cartouche. Each of the characters feature a negligible distortion from repeated impressions of the punch, and die breaks are well developed at the middle arm of the E and in the field to the right. An old mark just below center is matched by a similarly ancient blemish at center on the reverse, though neither of these distract from the overall aesthetic. The reverse punch is exceptionally bold, with the numerals uniformly pronounced and clear striations visible off the top of the first I. An exceptionally defined and impeccably preserved specimen. This piece is a well documented and storied example, having served as the host coin to a number of highly deceptive forgeries discovered in the 1970s. One of these counterfeits had been consigned to our (Bowers and Ruddy Galleries') August 1978 ANA Auction in a group of seven other colonial coins, six of which were also forgeries. Another one of these counterfeit shillings was owned by specialist Bill Anton and had been designated a forgery in June 1977 by ANACS. In describing this saga in his article "Superb Numismatic Forgeries Are Upon Us" in the April 1979 edition of The Numismatist, Eric Newman provides a thorough analysis of the present piece, providing a weight identical to the present assessment (70.2 grains) and a specific gravity (10.36). He notes the "dark & natural" toning in addition the "s shaped bend" of the planchet that distinguishes this genuine example from the two forgeries. Modern Colonial researchers have been gifted an indispensable tool concerning these coveted NE shilling in the form of Jack Howes' lengthy survey of New England coinage published in the August 2010 Colonial Newsletter. This was an extraordinary feat of census work and redefining provenance chains that had often become confused in recent decades. In the Howes article, he identified a surprising 14 specimens from the Noe 1-A dies, a far cry from the five pieces that had been seen by the Ford cataloger in 2005. Of those 14 coins, fully half are impounded, with seven coins in the collections of the ANS, British Museum (three pieces), the Lasser Collection at Colonial Williamsburg, the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution (the gift of Mrs. Norweb), and the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. The appearance of the EF-45 (PCGS) example in our March 2015 sale of the Kendall Collection, known to the Ford cataloger (the "New England Collection" coin) but not listed by Howes, makes for a total of 15 survivors, of which eight are in private hands. The Howes 1 coin, the Ford piece, was acquired from the Ford XII sale by John Kraljevich on behalf of David Sundman, who later consigned it to our sale of November 2013. Graded AU-55 by PCGS in 2013, it brought $440,625, up from the $253,000 it sold for in 2005. Newman's superb Noe 1-A, the high grade Mills (1904) coin, brought $352,500 in the May 2014 Newman sale, now graded PCGS AU-55. Howes places the Newman example at number 13. Partrick had two Noe 1-As, the present example, Howes 4, being the finest of the pair. His other example, certified EF-40 (NGC), is listed as number 6 in the Howes census and previously sold in our (Stack's) 1988 Oechsner Estate; its more complete punches outweighing its lower surface quality. The other four privately owned Noe 1-As are Howes 3, the very well struck Judd-Stack coin, Howes 5, the AU-50 (PCGS) example offered in our October 2018 auction as part of the Archangel Collection (where it realized $204,000), and Howes 7, the Zabriskie-Groves coin that Breen confused for the Ford coin. It is difficult to grade, or even rank, NE shillings. Different collectors will differently assess the importance of good original surfaces, complete stamps, or a lack of marks. We would not presume to tell bidders one aspect is more valuable than another. However, when all factors are considered and opinions are taken, it is irrefutable that the present example is among the most desirable of the extant population. It is an important relic of American history and numismatics and will surely be a crowning achievement of the next cabinet it graces. Provenance: Ex Sotheby's London Auction of September 1972, lot 162; Quality Sales Corporation's (Abner Kreisberg and Jerry Cohen) Public Coin Auction of September 1973, lot 444; Alan V. Weinberg; Early American Numismatics' Buy or Bid Sale #2 December 1984, lot 3; Bertram Cohen, August 9, 1989; Donald Groves Partrick; Heritage's sale of the Partrick Collection, January 2015, lot 5513. PCGS# 13. NGC ID: 2AR9. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA.