Undated (ca. 1652-1674) St. Patrick Farthing. Martin 1c.1-Ba.18, W-11500. Rarity-7. Copper. Nothing Below King. Fine-15 (PCGS).

80.8 grains. A hard, tight and glossy example with dominant golden-brown and olive patina to surfaces that exhibit plenty of good gloss. Well defined for the grade. Trivially off center to upper right obverse and reverse, both sides show full legends and bold definition to most major design elements. The steely-brass splasher envelopes three-quarters of the crown and bleeds down to the right into King David's face. Syd Martin listed only five examples of this variety in his 2018 census, the finest of which were VFs; Griffee earlier reported seven and believed that this piece was the finest. A rare Martin number, in either case, and represented here by a genuinely nice St. Patrick farthing at the PCGS-certified Fine grade level. This lot includes NGC insert #380864-001 with a grade of VF-20 BN, presumably from an earlier certification of this coin.

PCGS# 915293. NGC ID: AUAR.

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From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from McCawley-Grellman's sale of the John Griffee Collection of St. Patrick Farthings, November 2003 Ninth Annual C-4 Convention Sale, lot 93. The reverse is plated in Syd Martin's 2018 reference on St. Patrick coinage, p. 230, to illustrate the author's middle state of this reverse die.