(1616) Shilling Sommer Islands, Large Sails MS(PCGS#7)

Spring 2023 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

1186

等级

MS64

价格

271,193

详细说明

The Murdoch Large Sails Sommer Island Shilling A Major Rarity in the Series Four in Private Hands Undated (ca. 1616) Sommer Islands Shilling. BMA Type II, W-11465. Large Sails. Fine-15 (PCGS). 88.6 grains. One of the most important and finest pedigreed Sommer Islands shillings around, highly regarded (and out of the ground) for well over a century. Its earliest known offering was in 1905 as part of the eight-day sale entitled "Catalogue of the Valuable Collection of Coins and Medals, the Property of the late John G. Murdoch, Esq., Member of the Numismatic Society of London, The Coins and Tokens of the British Colonies and Dependencies, America and the European Continent." This lot was purchased by Spink for £17; Spink purchased the NE shilling in the sale for £10, 5s. When we offered this piece in 2007, we described it as follows: "A coin of magnificent rarity, one of just a few Large Sails Hogge Money shillings in private hands. While any Sommer Islands shilling is a rarity, this coin is rarer still for several reasons: it is in private hands and not impounded in one of several institutions in Bermuda, the United States, or England; it is struck from the Large Sails reverse, from which far fewer pieces survive than the Small Sails reverse; and it has the added interest of a century-old provenance to one of the most famous and elaborate cabinets ever formed. "The surfaces show a mottling of mahogany and olive green coloring over the slightly rough surfaces. Nearly every specimen known was found in the ground in Bermuda, and this piece is likely no exception. Some brighter green verdigris is seen in areas, most notable at the upper right reverse and near the left reverse rim. The sharpness is extremely bold for one of these, with a very clear hogge and most of the obverse legends present. The ship is also crisply detailed, with the three sails and most rigging perfectly plain to the naked eye. The planchet is broad and nearly round, allowing for nearly all of the peripheral beading to frame the reverse and most of the beading also seen on the obverse, though that die is misaligned slightly to 2:00 and shows an unstruck crescent at the lower left. A surface chip at central obverse allows for simple positive plate matching to the Murdoch sale, and several criss-crossing scratches at the obverse undoubtedly date to the useful life of the coin. Interestingly, Mark Sportack proposes that these coins were so reviled late in their circulating life that many were thrown away as useless trash, and the mass deposit at Castle Island supports this thesis. As other evidence, we note the seemingly disdainful scratches on this piece among others, like the X-scratched example sold as Lot 3 in our September 1994 sale. This coin shows no edge chips, bad dents, or other damage, but is remarkably wholesome, pleasing, and intact. "The work Coins of Bermuda, published by the Bermuda Monetary Authority, lists only six specimens of the Large Sails variety, though we see a likely duplication in the listing. They cite the unplated Parmelee specimen, the Stearns specimen, the Roper specimen, the Carnegie Museum specimen, the Starr specimen, and a piece found at Castle Island in 1993. The Parmelee piece is likely the same as the Stearns coin, as Stearns was an active buyer at the 1890 Parmelee sale and was a personal friend of Parmelee himself. Further, the aforementioned work describes the Parmelee coin as "dented at 1 o'clock," the same location as a mint clip on the Stearns coin, whose illustration was matched to Lot 2 (it was sold as Lot 1, which was illustrated by a sixpence through simple error). That reduces the total population to just six pieces with the addition of this specimen. Of those six, two and possibly three are impounded: the Roper coin is now the property of the Bank of Bermuda and the Castle Island piece is the property of the Bermuda Government. The Carnegie Institute coin, sold in 1983, may also be impounded; if so, only three specimens remain collectible, of which this is the second finest. The Parmelee-Stearns coin is sharper, but the Starr coin (last offered in our September 1994 sale) is not. The Parmelee-Stearns coin has been off the market since 1966. The Starr coin has been held privately since 1994. The present piece has also been off the market for years." Since this coin was last offered in 2007, just two Large Sails Sommer Islands shillings have come to market. The specimen sold in Heritage's sale of April 2014 (and again in their sale of August 2019) appears to be a new addition to the census. Graded F-12 (NGC), it was a little bit less detailed than this one and displays three identical marks near the central obverse. The other offering was of a previously known specimen: the Parmelee-Stearns example sold in our March 2015 Kendall Foundation sale as VF-20 (PCGS). As we noted in our Kendall Foundation catalog, there appear to be just four of these in private hands: the Murdoch coin (offered here), the Heritage 2014/2019 specimen, the Parmelee-Stearns-Kendall coin, and an example ex. Maurice Gould and Paul Koppenhaver that has changed hands privately during the last decade. The Roper coin (Bank of Bermuda) and Floyd Starr coin (Colonial Williamsburg) have both been purchased off the market and permanently placed in institutional collections. Despite the overabundance of important colonial cabinets sold in the last decade (Royse, Craige, Archangel, Newman, Partrick, Dittmer, etc.), not one of those named sales included a Large Sails Sommer Islands shilling. Provenance: From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge's sale of the famed John G. Murdoch Collection, July 1903, lot 546; our (Stack's) sale of May 2007, lot 317 (at $109,250). To view supplemental information and all items from the Sydney F. Martin Collection, click here. PCGS# 7. 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.