1792 1C Judd-1, Silver Center, BN SP(PCGS#11001)

October 2018 Baltimore U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

7152

等级

SP45BN

价格

2,340,152

详细说明

Historic 1792 Silver Center Cent Rarity The Judd and Kosoff Plate Coin 1792 Silver Center Cent. Judd-1. SP-45 (PCGS). CAC. 75.2 grains. Medal turn. A charming and well-preserved example of our first pattern cent, an issue whose high desirability springs from its combination of profound historical importance and outstanding rarity. Deep chocolate brown surfaces are even and glossy despite very fine and even surface granularity on both sides. The devices are crisp and well rendered, nicely centered on both sides. Denticles are visible around the top of the obverse and all but the extreme base of the reverse. The plug is well placed and attractive, toned a deep and original gray on the obverse, trivially lighter on the reverse. The plug is oblong on the obverse, longest along the axis that extends from 1:30 to 7:30, shortest on the perpendicular axis. It is nearly perfectly round on the reverse, containing the complete E and the left half of N of CENT. The plug did not completely fill the gap allotted to it on the reverse. The gap between silver and copper is broadest beside the plug's right side, narrowest beside the left side, and showing some space between the two compositions from roughly 10:00 to 8:00. The perfect circularity of the plug on the reverse suggests the cone-shaped plug was placed before striking with its round, broad base at the reverse and its thinner extension on the obverse; that thin tip was pressed flat against the obverse design, while the plug's base was already flush with the planchet on the reverse and thus did not expand significantly. No major marks or flaws are noted; a tiny nick between the locks far beneath E of SCIENCE and a short, curved mark in the field below IB of LIBERTY will hallmark this coin's provenance. The eye appeal is natural, essentially choice, and excellent for the grade. Both sides show a wealth of fine detail despite light wear. Any great historical object benefits from a paper trail, and perhaps no early American coin has a longer and more impressive paper trail than the Silver Center cent. The trail starts before the founding of the U.S. Mint, in the casual correspondence between the man whose brainchild the Silver Center cent was long thought to be and the man whose brainchild it actually was. Thomas Paine wrote to Thomas Jefferson on September 28, 1790, soon after Jefferson's April 1790 Report on Copper Coinage and his July 1790 report on Weights, Measures, and Coinage, which espoused a thoroughly interconnected decimal-based system. Into this conversation, Paine interjected some thoughts on how to give fractional coins real value: "Of compositions, three methods present themselves -- 1st. Mixing silver and copper in fusion -- 2d. Plating the copper with silver -- 3d. Plugging the copper with silver. But against all these there are very capital objections. -- Wherever there is a want of satisfaction there must necessarily be a want of confidence; and this must always take place in all compounded metals. There is also a decrease in the intrinsic value of metals when compounded; one shilling worth of silver compounded with one shilling worth of copper, the composition is not worth two shillings, or what the metals were worth before they were compounded, because they must again be separated to acquire their utmost value, and this only can be done at a refiner's. It is not what the coin cost to make, but what the coin is intrinsically worth when made; that only can give it currency in all cases. Plugging copper with silver is the least detrimental to the intrinsic value of the metals, because they are the easiest separated; but in all these cases the value of the silver put into the composition will be so predominant to the value of the copper, that it will be rather a base silver coin than a copper coin." Paine suggested a fiat currency, with no consideration of the intrinsic value of the copper coin, made more economic sense: "It is convenience only that ought to be considered with respect to copper coinage, and not money or riches." Jefferson apparently disagreed. He wrote back almost a year after Paine had sent his note, on July 29, 1791, explaining that he hadn't received the letter until February and figured he would see him that spring. He suggested that Paine publish his observations (which was done, possibly with Jefferson's assistance) but otherwise tabled the discussion, saying: "Your observations on the subject of a copper coinage have satisfied my mind on that subject, which I confess had wavered before between difficulties. As a different plan is under consideration of Congress, and will be taken up at their meeting, I think to watch the proper moment." With that, Jefferson apparently put the conversation out of his mind until late 1792, when a copper coin plugged with silver, just like Paine had suggested, was struck at the First United States Mint in Philadelphia. Presumably the suggestion for their construction had come from Jefferson, though Jefferson offers the credit to the Mint's coiner, Henry Voigt. Jefferson wrote to George Washington on December 18, 1792, enclosing two coins just like the one here offered: "Th. Jefferson has the honor to send the President 2 cents made on Voigt's plan, by putting a silver plug worth 3/4 of a cent into a copper worth 1/4 of a cent. Mr. Rittenhouse is to make a few by mixing the same plug by fusion with the same quantity of copper. He will then make of copper alone of the same size, and lastly he will make the real cent, as ordered by Congress, four times as big. Specimens of these several ways of making the cent will be delivered to the Committee of Congress now having that subject before them." Jefferson and Rittenhouse had gone about producing cents using two of the three methods Paine had suggested. They were pleased enough that they sent specimens of this particular type (and maybe the others, though the paper trail on that question is silent) to President Washington. They would have also sent Silver Center cents to the members of the "committee...to prepare and report a bill to amend the act establishing a Mint and regulating the coins of the United States, so far as respects the copper coinage," named on November 30, 1792 as Rep. Hugh Williamson of North Carolina, Rep. John Page of Virginia, and Rep. John W. Kittera of Pennsylvania. Williamson was a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, a former mathematics professor and a physician. John Page was a college chum of Thomas Jefferson's and served as his lieutenant governor during the Revolution. Kittera was a Princeton-educated lawyer. No mintage figure has ever been published, or even guessed at, but we can identify two sent to Washington and one to each of these three gentlemen. Perhaps they each received two or more. Given that no fewer than 14 survive, the mintage could have been as high as 50 or more. No early American coin has been so thoroughly researched as the Silver Center cent, led by some superb and objective researchers like Scott Rubin, Pete Smith, Leonard Augsburger, and Joel Orosz. The census of known pieces has become fixed in recent years, settling at 14 specimens with the discovery of a new lower grade piece in 2006. A few of these have survived in very high grade: the Garrett specimen, graded MS-67 BN (PCGS); the Norweb coin, MS-64 BN (PCGS); the F.C.C. Boyd-Eric Newman coin, MS-63+ (NGC); Alan Weinberg's choice example that remains raw but would likely certify at a Mint State grade; two more discrete specimens that have graded MS-61 BN, one each at PCGS and NGC; and the AU coin, ex: R.C. Davis and John Story Jenks, that is now in the Smithsonian. Of the 14 known specimens, it is remarkable that only one is impounded, namely the one that was fairly recently donated to the National Numismatic Collection. None are in the American Numismatic Society or the collection at Colonial Williamsburg; we know of none in the British Museum or elsewhere abroad. Given the rarity of this issue and its extraordinary level of appeal to collectors of all sort, the rapidity with which these enter the marketplace is also surprising. This one is a particularly famous example as Dr. Judd's own specimen. It was the longtime plate coin in the Judd pattern book, through several editions, and was also illustrated in Abe Kosoff's Illustrated History of United States Coins, published in 1962. It has not been sold at public auction in 111 years. Provenance: From the Archangel Collection. Earlier, from Julian Leidman, November 1976; Thomas Elder’s 13th sale, October 1907, lot 1732; Dr. J. Hewitt Judd Collection; Abe Kosoff. PCGS Population: 1; 5 finer. PCGS# 11001 Click here for certification details from PCGS.