(1616) 6P Sommer Islands, Large Portholes MS (PCGS#5)
The November 2012 Baltimore Auction
- 拍卖行
- Stack's Bowers
- 批号
- 6001
- 等级
- VF20
- 价格
- 549,500
- 详细说明
- Historic Sommer Islands Sixpence
Ex: Roper Collection
Undated (1616) Sommer Islands Sixpence. BAM Type I, W-11445. Large Portholes. VF-20 (PCGS).
32.7 grains. A sharp and complete example of this rare coinage, the very first coinage for an English colony of the New World, one that is intimately linked with the nascent colony at Jamestown, Virginia. Medium brown with jade green verdigris hiding in protected areas here and there, most notable at base of reverse. The coin remains round, the rims unchipped, and the planchet has never been creased. The obverse is extremely sharp for this issue, with the hogge's finer details like bristles and teeth boldly apparent, his outline utterly complete. The denomination is strong, and the legends are more than half present, with ILANDS fully legible and SOMMER partially present. The reverse is also quite bold, with all portholes present and accounted for, full rigging, and a generous proportion of the peripheral beading. Some smoothing is noted at the base of the reverse, to no great visual impact. Of course, the surfaces are somewhat rough from ground exposure, de rigeur for issues of this coinage, of which all known specimens have been excavated. The thorough inventory of known specimens accomplished for the Bermuda Monetary Authority's work Coins of Bermuda accounts for 19 known specimens of the Large Portholes variety, of which eight are thought to be held privately. The rest are owned by the government of Bermuda, the Bermuda Monetary Authority, or museums. There is some indication that Bermudian institutions have been players in the marketplace in recent years, and some of these pieces may no longer be in private hands. Among the collectible specimens, this piece ranks high. Both of the Lauder pieces were flawed and less sharp. The Norweb piece was sharper, though chipped at the edges. Garrett's is clearly finer, as is the second Roper coin, the Taylor coin and the ex: Carnegie Museum piece, plated in Pridmore. The piece sold in Heritage's May 2008 sale was sharper, but was described as bent.As Britain's oldest American colony, Bermuda shares nearly 200 years of history in common with the United States before the North American provinces declared independence. The original foundation of the island colony is a direct result of the problems at Jamestown, the earliest English settlement in Virginia and the oldest permanent English settlement in North America. The captain of the original voyage to Jamestown, Christopher Newport, led a third expedition to Virginia in 1609, but two of his nine ships were lost in a major storm and ran aground on Bermuda. The captain of one of those ships, Sir George Somers of the Sea Venture, became the new namesake of the islands. Somers continued on to Jamestown after building two new ships, discovering the nearly perished remnants of the Jamestown colony after the "Starving Time" winter of 1609-10. It is impossible to divorce Somers and the settlement of Bermuda from the history of Jamestown, though after 1615 the Virginia Company ceded its interest in Bermuda to "the Bermuda Company" or "the London Company," separating the two locales politically. The Hogge Money coins were authorized soon thereafter. In 1624, it was Jamestown's John Smith who became the first to describe the Hogge coins of Bermuda, noting that his compatriots in Bermuda had "a certaine kinde of brasse money, with a hogge on one side, in memory of the abundance of hogges was found at their first landing." Today, the Sommer Islands coinages are still richly associated with the earliest English settlements in America, holding a place of honor at the front of any advanced collection of early American coins.
PCGS# 5.
Provenance: From the John "Jack" Royse Collection. Earlier from our (Stack's) sale of the John L. Roper, 2nd Collection, December 1983, lot 3.
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