Vermont Copper
1785 Vermont Copper. RR-4, W-2010. Rarity-5-. Landscape, VERMONTS—Flipover Double Struck with Brockage—EF-45 (PCGS).
116.4 grains. A coin so complicated your cataloger had to draw schematics to conceive how it was made. In-person examination of this coin yields these kinds of observations: The obverse is the obverse of Ryder-4, struck from the later state of this die with a prominent arc of swelling below the plow and plow handles. The surfaces are finely granular and pleasantly toned dark olive. The centering is shifted toward 2:00 such that the top of P of PUBLICA is against the rim and the border denticles are visible below the date and above VERMONTIS. The reverse is also the obverse of Ryder-4, but from an early unswollen die state. It is sharp and ideally centered, with identical color and surface quality to the side opposite. The difference in die states leaves no questions about which obverse strike came first, nor does it admit any question of which came first among the early die state obverse impression or the brockage reverse impression with which it shares a side. On the early state obverse (which we refer to here as the reverse of this specimen), an impression from the reverse of a previously struck Ryder-4 is prominent at the top of that side. A full impression of DECIMA is seen, along with most of QUARTA and a wealth of stars and radiance, along with most of the central circle. Knowing that this obverse would have had to have been struck first, there is only one possible striking sequence. Ryder-4 exists as uniface strikes (a uniface Ryder-4 reverse is offered in the following lot). These uniface coins were produced by placing two planchets in the coining chamber at once, producing a uniface obverse and a uniface reverse. This coin began as a uniface obverse, showing an early die state impression of the obverse die and a featureless reverse. At some later point, it was struck again — not immediately, but instead after the obverse die state had progressed to its swollen state. When it underwent that second strike, there were again two pieces in the coining chamber: this coin, with its featureless blank reverse against the obverse die, and an already struck Ryder-4 with its reverse against this coin’s previous struck reverse. Upon the dies coming together, this coin took on a normal obverse strike on its previously blank reverse and a brockage impression against its previously struck obverse. Somewhere, there may be a Ryder-4 with a somewhat distorted reverse and an apparent flipover double struck obverse that was also struck by the reverse die in the coining process just described. In his 1875 Early Coins of America, Crosby discusses the phenomenon of two-headed Vermont landscapes: Another feature, rarely seen, is that some pieces are found bearing upon both sides of a solid planchet, impressions from the same die: this is probably caused by the coin last struck becoming by some means turned over upon the planchet next to be struck; thus the planchet would protect it from one die, becoming itself incused, while the other die would impress the other side of the planchet upon which it had before acted. He then described this exact specimen: A piece in the cabinet of the writer, has upon each side an impression of the “Vermontis” obverse, one side having in addition an incused impression from the reverse of one of the same coins. This coin is not found in the June 1883 sale catalog of his collection, which meant it must have been kept by the man who acquired Crosby’s collection en masse: Lorin G. Parmelee. In the 1890 Parmelee sale, lots 487 and 488 are similarly described: 487. Vermont Cent, 1785: same type, VERMONTIS. Rx. from the same die as the obverse ; fine, exceedingly rare. 488. Vermont Cent, 1785: same as next preceding: double obverse: not quite so well struck up; very good and rare. Another double obverse Ryder-3, stolen from the Bennington Museum, is illustrated in Ken Bressett’s contribution to the 1976 ANS collection Studies on Money in Early America, p. 179. It is a discrete specimen from this one and appears considerably less sharp. This coin and that one may have something in common aside from being the two known double obverse Ryder-3s: it seems likely they are Parmelee lots 487 and 488. While now missing and able to be studied only by photographs, it appears that piece may also have a brockage impression. Ryder-4 Vermonts are seen with a wide variety of seemingly intentional striking anomalies: oval-shaped planchets with bizarre double strikes, uniface strikes, and the two-headed coin offered here. This manner of hijinks is not found on other Vermont Landscapes (though true errors like double strikes are certainly known). We show no record of another double-headed Vermont like this selling since this coin was acquired in 1986. Indeed, with the loss of the stolen Bennington Museum coin, this piece now appears unique. Its provenance back to the colonial coin specialty’s first expert practitioner, Sylvester S. Crosby, its description on page 187 of his magnum opus, and its subsequent acquisition by Lorin G. Parmelee give this coin a provenance of incomparable gravitas. It is one of the highlights of this offering, and one of the single most interesting Vermont coppers this cataloger has ever encountered.
PCGS #542 and #800846.
From the E Pluribus Unum Collection. Earlier from the Sylvester S. Crosby Collection; Lorin G. Parmelee Collection, 1882; New York Coin and Stamp Company’s sale of the Lorin G. Parmelee Collection, June 1890, lot 487; unknown intermediaries; Ezra Cole Collection; Bowers and Merena’s sale of the Ezra Cole Collection, January 1986, lot 1159.
Estimate: $5000