Undated (1737) Higley Copper. Freidus 3.2-C, W-8260. Rarity-7-. VALUE ME AS YOU PLEASE / J CUT MY WAY THROUGH, Broad Axe. VF Details--Graffiti (PCGS).
167.4 grains. A boldly defined and pleasing example with a wonderful old provenance. Aside from the light and very old "graffiti," which is no doubt contemporary to the 1801 date lightly engraved over the deer, this is a very attractive medium brown coin on a good quality planchet for a Higley copper. Perfectly centered and evenly struck, the design elements are boldly defined and legends complete save for just a few letters affected by a planchet squeeze at 10:00 relative to the reverse and slight roughness at the corresponding area of the obverse. The surfaces show no flaws or major marks otherwise and have a nice, glossy texture overall with just trivial underlying granularity. Perhaps lightly burnished at some point to minimize the engraving and any granularity, but if so it was done carefully. As seen on several examples of this die variety, this piece displays evidence of double striking, here evident primarily on the deer's back legs. This charming coin boasts a desirable pedigree to the famous 1914 ANS Exhibition, the so-called "Million Dollar Exhibition," an unprecedented assemblage of colonial and United States coins arranged for display at the American Numismatic Society's 56th annual meeting. Coins were loaned by the ANS and 27 of the most prominent collectors and dealers of the day, resulting in a remarkably comprehensive exhibition that included examples of nearly all American coins great and small. An impressive catalog was prepared by the ANS to document the exhibition that included 133 pages of text descriptions and 39 photographic plates showing select highlights from each of the exhibitors. The present coin, loaned by S.H. Chapman from his personal collection, is illustrated on Plate 10 in the catalog. There are about a dozen examples known of the Freidus 3.2-C die variety which makes this the most common, or better put, the least excruciatingly rare die variety in the series. The (1737) VALUE ME AS YOU PLEASE / J CUT MY WAY THROUGH, Broad Axe type comprises three die varieties and about 20 total specimens making this one of the more available types of Higley coppers and therefore a good candidate for those collectors looking to own a single example of the coinage. Many collectors may recognize this particular example as there exist many electrotype copies made from it, each with the unmistakable "1801" in the field above the deer, I below, and RL below axe. But this is the real deal, a memorable piece that will make a proud addition to its next owner's cabinet. The ownership of any Higley copper is a point of pride for collectors, but this one offers much more than the typical specimen in terms of both condition and numismatic history.
PCGS# 213.
From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from Thomas Elder's sale of the Peter Gschwend, Esq. Collection, June 1908, lot 45; our (Stack's) sale of the Robison Collection, February 1982, lot 61; our (Stack's) Fall 1983 Fixed Price List; Superior's January 1984 sale, lot 20; our (Stack's) June 1986 Fixed Price List; Hain Family Collection; our (Stack's) Americana Sale, January 2002, lot 204; Lawrence R. Stack Collection, November 2006. Plated in The American Numismatic Society Exhibition of United States and Colonial Coins, January Seventeenth to February Eighteenth 1914, p. 23 and Plate 10.