1787 NY 1/2P George Clinton, Excelsior, BN MS(PCGS#433)

The November 2012 Baltimore Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

6056

等级

F15BN

价格

1,392,068

详细说明

Historic 1787 George Clinton Copper Rarity Ex: Col. E.H.R. Green-Prann-Roper-Steinberg 1787 Excelsior Copper. W-5790. George Clinton. Fine-15 (PCGS). 144.8 grains. A superbly provenance and highly attractive example of one of the legendary rarities of the Confederation period. Choice chocolate brown surfaces are smooth and glossy, showing significant wear but no damage or serious issues from time spent in circulation. Rim bruises at 12:30 and 7 o'clock roughly parallel each other and were likely caused at the same time; neither affects the designs or significantly alters the superb visual appeal. Only scattered tiny marks are seen, such as the minuscule nick up from the downstroke of the N of CLINTON. One of the highlights of the present offering, one of only three or four different Clinton coppers that have been offered in the last four decades. The total population appears to be on the order of a dozen pieces, including those impounded in the Smithsonian Institution, Colonial Williamsburg, Newman Money Museum, etc. This type is so rare than even world class cabinets formed over the course of multiple decades have lacked one, including the multi-generational Norweb collection and the Oechsner Collection, which contained almost every other New York copper rarity of this era. Ford sold his privately in 1973; it was thus not present in our offering of the Boyd-Ford collection. This piece is similar in quality to the slightly finer Laird Park-Robison piece; the Colonial Williamsburg specimen is also around VF but maybe a shade nicer than these two. The Garrett coin is probably EF by today's standards. The Smithsonian coin is Mint State or close to it. A few others are at the opposite end of the preservation scale. PCGS has certified two other specimens, one at VF-20 and another as EF-40. Struck by Machin's Mills, apparently in an attempt to curry favor with Governor George Clinton while New York considered the question of contracting a firm to produce New York state coppers, this type appears to be a pattern in the true sense of the word, one that was never struck in large numbers as a simple commercial production. The appearance of this piece at auction is a stroke of good luck for today's generation of advanced collectors, many of whom have literally never seen one of these cross the auction block. PCGS# 433. Provenance: From the John "Jack" Royse Collection. Earlier from our (Stack's) 1990 fixed price list of Colonial Coins and Medals, lot 135; the Col. E.H.R. Green Collection; Numismatic Gallery (Abe Kosoff)'s 1947 ANA sale of the Robert Prann Collection, August 1947, lot 602; our (Stack's) sale of the John L. Roper 2nd Collection, December 1983, lot 274; our (Stack's) sale of the Gilbert Steinberg Collection, October 1989, lot 103.