Vermont Copper
1788 Vermont Copper. RR-27, Bressett 18-W, W-2205. Rarity-2. Bust Right. AU Details--Scratch (PCGS).
132.4 grains. Deep golden-tan throughout with a hint of olive toning here and there. Sharply struck. Obverse with some natural planchet roughness, as struck, at the rim from 1 to 2 o'clock, old toned-over X scratch, the left arm rim to rim from 11 to 5 o'clock, the right arm of the X rim to rim from 3 to 8 o'clock. Numerous other light scratches in the field before and behind the effigy's portrait also help to explain the PCGS qualifier, and we further note a tiny rim bruise above the letters RM in VERMON. There are no other credible marks present on the obverse, the die crack just beginning at star after AUCTORI toward the bust. The reverse is sharp and appealing but also with a faint toned-over X scratch, the left arm of the X rim to rim from 11 to 5 o'clock, the right arm rim to rim from about 2 to 8 o'clock, the crack so faint as to mostly avoid the unaided eye. RR-27 represents the only use of Bressett's Obverse 18, a die that is very similar to the obverse die of RR-13, the famous Britannia variety. Carlotto's weight metrology runs from 90 to 130 grains for the variety. This specimen is plated in the Carlotto reference and also appeared on the cover of the C4 Newsletter circa 1995 to 1996.
PCGS# 563. NGC ID: 2B5D.
Ex Henry Chapman's sale of the George H. Earle Collection, June 1912, lot 2000; Hillyer C. Ryder; F.C.C. Boyd; John J. Ford, Jr.; our (Bowers and Merena's) Frontenac Sale, November 1991, lot 109; Dan Freidus; our sale of the Dan Freidus Collection, November 2012 Baltimore Auction, lot 6686. Stack's Bowers Galleries lot tag and collector envelope and tag with attribution and provenance notes included.
Estimate: $500