1694 Token Elephant, New England, BN MS(PCGS#76)

Spring 2023 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

1230

等级

VG8BN

价格

593,235

详细说明

Extremely Rare 1694 New England Elephant Token GOD PRESERVE NEW ENGLAND A Legendary Rarity One of Three Known 1694 New England Elephant Token. Hodder 2-G, W-12140, Breen-197, Betts-80. Rarity-8-. VG-8 (PCGS). 132.8 grains. Glossy and beautiful, rare and important, a famous example of this most charismatic colonial rarity. There are only three examples known: the beautiful Norweb coin, the very sharp but lightly burnished Mickley-Roper-Partrick coin, and this one, whose provenance is extensive and impressive over the last 150 years of ownership. When this piece was offered as part of the Garrett Collection in 1980, it was the first auction offering of a New England Elephant token since this exact coin sold in the 1890 Parmelee sale. The 1980s saw all three specimens auctioned (the Roper coin in 1983, the Norweb coin in 1987). Since then, there have been just two opportunities to buy a specimen: when this coin sold in 2015, and when the Roper coin appeared in the Partrick Collection sale of January 2021. We cataloged this piece in 2015 as follows: "A landmark rarity with a total surviving population of just three specimens. This boasts the oldest and most august provenance of the three and has now been off the market for 35 years. No specimen of this type has been available publicly or privately since the Norweb sales, leaving the entire modern generation of advanced collectors no opportunity to acquire any of the three. This piece is well worn but beautiful, with highly glossy light brown surfaces, mostly smooth but for some natural planchet striations at the elephant's hindquarters and VE of PRESERVE. The surfaces are glossy enough that a thin layer of wax may have been applied at some point in the distant past. The obverse, though well worn, shows just a few little marks , some thin hairline scratches amidst the wear at center, and a few specks, one at the tip of the upper tusk, another above the ear. The reverse shows a few similar specks, two above 4 of the date, two more in the left-central field. The obverse is aligned a bit toward 6 o'clock, the reverse measurably off toward 9 o'clock, with die edge and beaded border opposite at right. Central swelling obliterates the word NEW; a minor old dig is seen below 4. This may be the most worn of the three known, but it is also the only one of the three on a thin planchet similar to the Thin Planchet London Elephant tokens. The Norweb coin weighs 240.9 grains, while the Roper piece tips the scales at 234.6 grains. "Pedigreed to 1871 with continuity, this piece was first offered in Strobridge's sale of the Dr. Charles Clay Collection, December 1871, as "Excessively rare; almost unique," a summation that has not changed much in the 14 and a half decades since. It brought $72.50, while a 1714 Gloucester token brought $12 and a Higley brought $14. The coin sold to George A. Seavey, whose collection was bought intact by Parmelee, who spun duplicates off but kept the most important items for his own cabinet. This piece made its second auction appearance in 1890 in the Parmelee sale, plated on Plate I (few coins, even among great rarities, were plated in the Parmelee catalog) and sold for $70 as lot 350. From Parmelee the coin found its way to the Virgil Brand Collection, from which it emerged in the hands of B.G. Johnson, who offered the coin to John Work Garrett on October 27, 1934, calling it 'excessively rare if not unique,' perhaps borrowing the phrase from the Clay catalog. Johnson told Garrett this coin was the 'Parmelee and Crosby specimen;' though he was right about Parmelee, Crosby never owned a New England Elephant and the coin plated in his book was the William Sumner Appleton coin, most recently sold in our (Stack's) 1983 Roper sale. The price had gone up tenfold since Parmelee: it was $750 to Garrett. By November 15, 1934, Garrett had sent his check. For 55 years, it remained among the Garrett holdings at The Johns Hopkins University. When it was offered in 1980, it brought $16,000. The Gloucester token with which it shared much of its provenance, worth just 1/6th as much in 1871, brought more than twice as much in the very next lot. "Before the Garrett sale, an example of this rarity had not sold publicly since Parmelee, a 90 year absence from the market. Then, after 1980, a flurry: 1983 saw the finest known example sell in our (Stack's) Roper sale after an absence of at least a century. Four years later, in 1987, we (Bowers and Merena) sold Mrs. Norweb's example. It had never before been offered, having been purchased privately from A.H. Baldwin and Sons of London in 1954. "The colonial coin market has changed to an extraordinary degree since 1987. Many of the most advanced collectors active today had not yet begun gathering colonials when the Garrett, Roper, and Norweb sales went off. A three decade gap between appearances is relatively brief compared to the previous long interval, during which collectors like James Ten Eyck, Fred Boyd, Laird Park, and others never had even a single opportunity to purchase an example of this type. An imagined list of interested bidders on this coin when it was offered in Clay or Parmelee might include men like Bushnell, Stickney, Mills, Gschwend, and Earle, all of whom would have no doubt loved to have owned it. The present generation is fortunate to have the opportunity to acquire a rarity that eluded so many legendary collectors." What we left out of that description: why an elephant, why 1694, and what does any of this have to do with New England? Why did we leave that out? We have no idea and neither does anyone else. The London Elephant tokens seem to be products of the 1670s. We cannot hazard a guess as to why two obverses would be resurrected in 1694 to produce halfpenny tokens in support of Carolina and New England. Were these related to colonial political upheaval? Advertising tokens to lure new settlers? Something else entirely? It's an enduring mystery. What we do know is that most circulated, but some were clearly saved (a relatively large number of Carolina pieces remain in high grades). None have been recovered in North America and there is no reason to suspect they were coined to circulate here. But their relevance to American collectors is clear, profound, and ancient, as this piece's extraordinary provenance well illustrates. Provenance: From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from William Strobridge's sale of the Dr. Charles Clay Collection, December 1871, lot 139; George A. Seavey to Lorin G. Parmelee; New York Coin and Stamp Company's sale of the Lorin G. Parmelee Collection, June 1890, lot 350; Virgil Brand Collection; Brand Estate to Burdette G. Johnson; Johnson to John Work Garrett on November 15, 1934; John Work Garrett to The Johns Hopkins University, by gift, 1942; our (Bowers and Ruddy's) sale of the Garrett Collection, Part III, October 1980, lot 1317, via Lester Merkin; our sale of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation Collection, March 2015, lot 2480. To view supplemental information and all items from the Sydney F. Martin Collection, click here. PCGS# 76. 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. Click here to see Coins in Motion.[“Coins]