1788 New Jersey Copper. Maris 75-bb, W-5520. Rarity-4. Running Fox Before Legend. EF-40 (PCGS).
150.6 grains. 27.1 mm. A sharp and well-pedigreed example of this popular major variety. Even and attractive deep olive with a consistent and glossy patina, microscopically granular but lovely nonetheless. Ideally centered on both sides, with complete legends and very bold devices. Aside from a little raised patch of corrosion on the exergue line left of the plowshare, this piece shows only the most trivial flaws. The arc of die damage below 9:00 on the obverse is common to all examples. It's a bit advanced here, and the cud above VA of NOVA and C of CAESAREA has started to fill in, making this late Die State 1 but not yet Die State 2. There are a lot of these in VG and Fine, and a decent number in VF, though many have problems. In EF and AU, the air is thin. The best of these is undoubtedly the Ted Craige coin, ex Stickney, purchased at New Netherlands' famous 60th Sale. We sold it this past April, graded AU-58 (PCGS), for $50,400 (more than double what it brought in 2013). The only other two AUs on the SHI Census are unverified, including the piece in the Yale Cabinet. After the EF+ Roper coin, the remaining examples are EF: Maris-Garrett-Taylor, New Jersey Historical Society, and Parmelee-Ford. The Laird Park coin, sold in our October 2018 Archangel sale as PCGS AU-50, is probably a top three or four coin, and Eric Newman's NGC EF-45 probably deserves a spot on the list too. Dittmer owned an NGC EF-40, but Partrick seems to have lacked this Maris number entirely. The nicest one in E Pluribus Unum was a handsome VF-30 (PCGS). This piece is probably one of the ten best of these, all things considered.
PCGS# 783095.
From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Henry Garrett Collection; our (Bowers and Merena's) Spring Quartette Sale, March 1992, lot 1446; William O'Donnell Collection; our (Stack's) 2001 Americana sale, January 2001, lot 171; Lawrence R. Stack Collection, November 2006.