1784 Copper Washington, Ugly Head, BN MS(PCGS#695)

Winter 2022 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

2061

等级

PO1BN

价格

63,561

详细说明

Extremely Rare Washington the Great Copper “1784” Circa 1795(?) Washington The Great or “Ugly Head” Copper. Musante GW-56, Baker-8, Breen-1185. Copper. Plain edge. Poor-1 (PCGS). 26.3 mm. 83.5 grains. Deep mottled olive and brown surfaces seem largely smooth and slightly glossy on first glance, but up close are mildly porous throughout. Scattered tiny marks and ancient scrapes are seen, but most have been long since smoothed by what appears to be considerable circulation wear. The obverse legend, reading WASHINGTON THE GREAT D.G. is lost, as is the reverse design, which featured 13 rings corresponding to the original colonies around, with the date 17/84 at center. The first mention we are aware of for this type is in The Historical Magazine, Volume 4, July 1860, on page 215, where it is mentioned as follows: “WASHINGTON CENT. — A strange Washington cent in the possession of Dr. Gibbes [Dr. Robert Wilson Gibbes, M.D.] of Columbia, S.C., does not seem to have been described…” A description is then given: “Obverse: Head of Washington, extremely rude; legend, Washington the Great, D.G. Reverse: a chain of rings, each bearing the initial of a State, and in the center, 84.” According to James Ross Snowden’s 1861 work on the medals of Washington, Dr. Gibbes had presented his piece to the Mint Cabinet, and it is a good thing, as his home and remaining collections were reduced to ashes by William Tecumseh Sherman’s forces in 1865. Snowden commented that the piece was “rude in design and execution, but is a very rare, and probably a unique, piece.” No further information was given, or presumably known. The first public sale we are aware of occurred in the April 1863 sale of Edward Cogan’s coins. He commented that only two were known, the one being offered and that in the Mint Cabinet. Cogan’s, though badly defaced by a large reverse engraving, realized $60 and sold to William Sumner Appleton. It went to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1905, where it remains. For some perspective on that sale, Appleton paid $10 less for a copper Getz pattern and $85 for one in silver in the same sale. Forwarding to the present, little has changed in terms of our understanding of these pieces, except that after all these years of study and search, they remain very rare, indeed. Clearly, the output was very small, and it has been posited that they were originally struck to appear old and worn, but by whom and when is unknown. Though the reverse design is lost on this one, and the obverse legends, too, the distinctive portrait is unmistakable. Provenance: From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Purchased from Christopher B. Young, October 2010. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA.