1837 Token HT-41 Copper Liberty - Not One Cent, BN MS(PCGS#77477)

August 2019 ANA U.S. Coins Auction Rosemont, IL

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

255

等级

AU55BN

价格

5,929

详细说明

1837 Liberty - Not One Cent. Bushnell Fantasy. HT-41, Low-27, W-X-400a. Rarity-7. Copper. Plain Edge. 28 mm. AU-55 (PCGS). Coin alignment. Glossy dark copper surfaces display sharp to full detail from a nicely centered strike. The surfaces are quite rough with scattered pitting, shallow planchet depression in the right obverse field, although we stress that these features are as made. Satiny in texture, there is particularly intense luster around the peripheries. A few dull rim marks on the obverse at 2:30 will serve to trace this significant piece in future market appearances. About as attractive as these come, although the Dice-Hicks specimen and both Ford pieces were marginally finer and cataloged as Uncirculated. HT-41 is one of several rare and enigmatic fantasy strikes in the Hard Times series. These pieces were produced sometime during the late 19th century from newly prepared dies whose designs mimicked those used on tokens made during the 1830s. Most examples were struck in copper, the surfaces oxidized, distressed or otherwise aged to give them the appearance of having circulated like the originals. Exactly when they were made, by who or for whom remains a mystery. The term "Bushnell Fantasy" has traditionally been attached to these since Lyman H. Low, in Hard Times Tokens, 1899, incorrectly attributed an American Silver token to Charles Ira Bushnell, then continued to describe these fantasy pieces as follows: "I hold a similar unfavorable opinion of Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27, 41, 42 and 43, but in these latter I think a partner was admitted, and a very limited number of each was struck, but probably only single specimens in silver." The Chapman brothers' 1882 sale of the Bushnell Collection did include two of these fantasy pieces, but the more likely candidate for the earliest discernible association with these tokens is Joseph N.T. Levick. W. Elliott Woodward's 1884 sale of the Levick Collection included seven of these fantasies, and when Thomas L. Elder offered more of Levick's tokens and related pieces in 1907 a further nine of these Hard Times fantasies were included therein. According to Bowers (2015), therefore, Levick is probably the person who commissioned these unusual types. All of these so-called Bushnell Fantasies are rare, mintages for each type probably no more than 10 pieces, only about 50% of which are believed extant. Clearly this offering represents a rare opportunity for the advanced collector. Provenance: From Heritage's Long Beach Signature Auction of June 2013, lot 5478. Click here for certification details from PCGS.