"1787" Fugio Jarvis Gold Fantasy, Breen-1329 MS(PCGS#696294)

May 2019 Baltimore U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

3279

等级

MS62

价格

36,482

详细说明

Unique Fugio Restrike Obverse Impression in Gold Newman Obverse-102, Breen-1329 Undated (ca. 1940s) Fugio Copper Restrike Obverse Impression. Gold. Newman Obverse-102, Breen-1329. Unique. MS-62 (PCGS). 190.1 grains. 29.1 mm x 29.8 mm. A unique and desirable impression of one of the original "five parts of the dies" obtained by Horatio Rust in New Haven in 1859. Bright yellow-gold in color with tremendous traces of satiny luster blanketing the surfaces. The obverse rims slope upward to give an incuse appearance, while the reverse remains virtually flat. The sun rays and sundial remain sharply defined, with areas of isolated softness as-made. A wrinkled, almost matte-like texture blankets the fields and accentuates the luster. A few thin marks are visible under the right side of the sundial and in the left field, though these marks are present in the die and do not represent friction. The reverse is stamped J. JARVIS U.S 1787 in raised letters and is aligned slightly to the northwest. Subtle clouds of luster surround these devices and the definition is uniformly bold. Visible under scrutiny are microscopic pores resulting from production which appear like honey-gold freckles to the naked eye. There are no known die-struck coins from the Newman 102-GG dies, though a bronze hub impression was offered in our October 2003 sale of the Ford Collection, Part I, and a gold trial piece made from this hub was sold in our November 1988 sale of the Norweb Collection, Part III. The obverse impression offered here and the reverse impression offered in the following lot are significant rarities pertaining to the Fugio series that have drawn the attention of the greatest numismatists of the 20th century including Newman, Ford, Breen, Boyd. The earliest mention of these pieces is found in a letter dated February 28, 1955 from John J. Ford, Jr. to Eric P. Newman where Ford writes that he has "just seen [an] obverse and reverse struck on gold planchets from very rusty dies" and goes on to describe the JARVIS reverse. Six weeks later on April 15, Ford tells Newman "I will send you photographs of the unpublished gold Fugios at a very early date" which did not seem to occur until later that year. Newman next refers to these pieces on October 3rd, writing that he has "been studying the Fugio patterns" and is "convinced that there was some pretty fancy crooked work when the dies were found in the Broome and Platt store," referencing the hardware store in New Haven where the restrike dies were discovered. Newman ends his letter by requesting for Ford to "send me the impression you had for study and photography." In his response on October 10, Ford reveals that "in reference to the gold Fugio oddments...F.C.C.B. has these, the obverse and reverse struck on separate planchets. I suggest that you write for him to send them to you." It would be several years from his 1955 correspondence with John Ford that Eric Newman would finally get the chance to examine the gold impressions offered presently. On the Fourth of July, 1958, John Ford, Eric Newman, and F.C.C. Boyd met for a numismatic summit of sorts at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City, where they shared coins from their collection and loaned each other pieces to study. Among the many rarities accompanying Newman were four pieces of Somers Island coinage and a 1776 Continental Dollar in silver. Newman made handwritten notes on Biltmore stationary about several colonial coins brought by Boyd including his own 1776 Continental Dollar in silver and the pair of uniface gold Fugio impressions. Eric Newman goes on to mention these impressions several times over the next few years, writing about "two strikings in gold. With "J.Jarvis, 1787" on the back" in a November 1958 letter to specialist Damon Douglas, and later mistakenly recalls that "there is, in gold, a striking of obverse 104 with a reverse which reads James Jarvis 1787. My notes on that item are buried and if need be I will find them for Mrs. Norweb." Just around this time, Eric Newman's interest in the Fugio series began to intensify once again as he planned a follow-up to his seminal work Varieties of the Fugio Centfirst published in 1949. In a letter to Emery May Norweb from June 28, 1963 he insists " I am going to write a monograph on the subject since the work I did previously is now obsolete." Collectors had to wait nearly 60 years for this monograph, United States Fugio Copper Coinage of 1787(2008), but it is now considered the standard reference on the series. Newman does not explicitly mention the present impressions in this most recent publication, but does note that "there are uniface impressions, two sided impressions and electrotypes of AMERICAN CONGRESS and some sundial dies." These impressions were held privately as part of the F.C.C. Boyd Estate for much of the 20th century but have still gained recognition by modern numismatists. In the July 1983 issue of The Colonial Newsletter,Jim Spilman mentions a variety of Fugio trial pieces including "uniface replications in gold bearing the name J. Jarvis on the backside," which were not made by Sylvester Crosby circa 1902 but "by others at some later date." Perhaps the most impactful mention that these pieces have received has been their inclusion in Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia (1988) under the numbers 1329 (obverse) and 1330 (reverse). Impressions of Newman Obverse-102 are truly significant rarities and Fugios of any fabric in gold are even more desirable. The present example represents a truly irresistible opportunity that has not presented itself to the past several generations of numismatists and may not occur again for quite some time. Provenance: Ex F.C.C. Boyd Estate. PCGS# 696294. Click here for certification details from PCGS.