1787 Connecticut Copper. Miller 33.2-Z.17, W-3370. Rarity-6-. Draped Bust Left. MS-62 (PCGS).
128.5 grains. An exceptional specimen of this rare die pairing. The obverse is lustrous light steel and chocolate brown with numerous unmistakable vestiges of natural orange-red flecked through the legends and elsewhere to a lesser degree. One small surface deposit at the first C. Centered a little low on this side which is not unusual in this pairing, with the truncation of the effigy just a trifle over the border. The reverse is smooth and hard steely brown with soft luster glowing in the fields. Traces of faded red are noted, but they are fewer than seen on the other side. Centered a little high and right on this side, but no details are lost. The lower left rim is thick and well developed as a result. Both sides exhibit minor central weakness and associated planchet roughness, while only a couple of very small natural flaws are noted. One of the rarest of five pairings for this obverse and proposed to be the third usage chronologically. The reverse die was used only in this pairing and, like the Z.5 die, it has a major reverse break that is seen on all known specimens. Clearly, this break advanced quickly and became terminal for the die, resulting in today's rarity of this pairing. Robert Martin's notebooks contain nothing remotely as nice as this in terms of other specimens, and it is easily finer than all others we are aware of. Even Partrick's was a damaged Very Fine. The much weaker and obviously flawed coin in Collection SLT was eventually graded AU-53 by PCGS. In the SLT notes, that coin was proclaimed the "second finest known after John J. Ford, Jr. specimen" (the current piece). Reverse plated in Clark, and with a very desirable provenance to Henry C. Miller.
PCGS# 685206.
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From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from Tom Elder's sale of the Henry C. Miller Collection, May 1920, lot 1960; Hillyer C. Ryder; F.C.C. Boyd; our (Stack's) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part IX, May 2005, lot 355; Christopher B. Young, September 2006.

Estimate: $15000