Machin's Mills Halfpenny
1772 Machin's Mills Halfpenny. Vlack 5-72A, W-7710. Rarity-6. GEORGIVS III, Group I. VF-20 (PCGS).
115.4 grains. Well centered on a comfortable flan, this dark brown, relatively smooth coin is head and shoulders above the average example of this variety encountered. Many display similar detail in the design motifs, but have far inferior surfaces with scratches, corrosion or other impairments. The Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins reports a condition census that ranges from VF-30 to AU, so this specimen likely misses the census, though we must say that we feel that a grade of VF-25 or even VF-30 is more appropriate for this coin. Struck from the middle die state of the reverse, a fingerlike die break reaching upwards into the field from Britannia's branch hand, a break that makes for easy identification of the die pairing and that lengthens and thickens on even later states. Amusingly enough, Dick Doty, late curator of the National Numismatic Collection, had once used an example of 5-72A in this die state from the Collection to illustrate his class on British coinage at the ANA Summer Seminar, not realizing it was a Machin's Mills halfpenny and not a genuine product of the Tower Mint! Finer than Ringo's VF-25 and Newman's VF Details example. The finest must be the Breen plate coin that was also used to illustrate reverse 72A on the Jack Howes plate.
PCGS# 939 and #826940.
From the E Pluribus Unum Collection.
Estimate: $3000