1788 Vermont Copper. RR-38, Bressett 10-M, W-2160. Rarity-7. Bust Right. VG-8 (PCGS).
128.6 grains. Perhaps Syd's greatest find in colonial numismatics, this seventh known example of RR-38 was located at local show by Syd just weeks after acquiring one of the other impossible Vermont rarities, the RR-37 in the preceding lot. He had to keep his cool while negotiating the $175 transaction that quite literally completed his set of Vermont coppers from RR-1 to RR-39, including both struck and cast versions of RR-5. Ironically, just weeks before he had passed up on the acquisition of the only other RR-38 to come to auction in recent memory, the rather rough Bowers-Partrick coin that sold for $18,800. Though seven specimens of RR-38 are known, two are impounded in the collections of the Bennington Museum (the Picker-Barnsley discovery coin) and the Vermont Historical Society, leaving just five in collector hands. The only other example to come to market was the sharp but pitted Taylor coin called "F-15/VG-8" in 1987. Syd considered his coin second finest known after the Vermont Historical Society example plated in the Carlotto reference, though the VHS, Taylor and Syd's examples all display roughly the same level of detail, but with differing positive and negative attributes. Syd's is perhaps the smoothest and most eye appealing of the three, its steely brown surfaces showing some golden highlights as well as granularity at right reverse. Most obvious are the two areas of inherent, as-made planchet roughness at obverse center and at top of effigy's head. Obverse is well-centered, reverse is centered towards 5 o'clock, with ET LIB overlapping the rim and the date rendered invisible due to the uncentered strike and wear. This served as the plate coin for the variety in Dave Bowers' 2018 The Copper Coins of Vermont and Interrelated Issues-1783-1788. Here is one of the highlights of Syd's vast colonial coin holdings, a most lucky purchase that brought the coin into the realm of die variety collectors like Syd.
PCGS# 916574.
To view supplemental information and all items from the Sydney F. Martin Collection, click here.
From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex an unnamed dealer at the Tri-County Coin Show in Horsham, PA, January 2015.

Estimate: $40000