(1785) 1/2P Bar Copper, BN MS (PCGS#599)
The March 2010 Baltimore Auction
- 拍卖行
- Bowers & Merena
- 批号
- 68
- 等级
- AU58
- 价格
- 113,941
- 详细说明
- Undated (Circa 1785) Bar Copper. W-8520, Breen-1145, Crosby Plate IX, 25. URS-9. AU-58 (PCGS). CAC. One of the most eagerly sought numismatic items from the Colonial and early Federal-era of United States history, the Bar Copper is also one of the most enigmatic. The history of this type is shrouded in mystery, and we are not even sure by whom or under what circumstances the Bar Coppers were produced. We are reasonably sure, however, that this type was struck circa 1785, as evidenced by an entry in the November 12, 1785 issue of the <em>New Jersey Gazette</em> that states:<br /> <br /> A new and curious kind of coppers have lately made their appearance in New York. The novelty and bright gloss of which keeps them in circulation. These coppers are in fact similar to Continental buttons without eyes; on the one side are thirteen stripes and on the other U.S.A., as was usual on the solders' buttons.<br /> <br /> What other ""facts"" we have concerning these coins is circumstantial. Russell Rulau (as related by Q. David Bowers, <em>Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins</em>, 2009) believes that the Bar Coppers were struck in Birmingham, England by Thomas Wyon. As the foregoing article makes clear, at least some of these coins found their way to the young United States, where a dearth of circulating specie meant that they were eagerly accepted in the avenues of commerce. To create a circulating coinage for the United States may have been the minter's intention all along, for the design would have been familiar to any contemporary American. And circulate these coins did, for survivors are scarce in all grades, and most are well worn and/or impaired.<br /> We recently offered a Mint State example of the Bar Copper in a PCGS MS-62 BN holder--this AU-58 is a much more attractive coin. Both sides are uncommonly smooth with no distracting abrasions, sizable carbon spots or worrisome planchet flaws. The devices are boldly defined from
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