1787 Excelsior Copper. W-5780. Rarity-6+. Eagle on Globe Facing Right, Arrows at Right. EF Details--Scratches (NGC).

A respectable example of this scarce type and rare variety, coined in 1787 by private enterprise as New York was considering a state copper coinage of their own to match similar emissions of adjacent New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut. The strike is trivially off center to 3 o'clock on the obverse, 1:30 or so on the reverse, with the peripheral features in those areas flush to the borders. Overall detail is bold, nevertheless, and the entire design is fully appreciable. The surfaces are dark brown, rough and granular on both sides, with several old, dull scratches on the obverse explaining the NGC qualifier. There are three basic varieties of this type, combining an obverse with the New York Arms and the word EXCELSIOR with a Heraldic Eagle reverse. One of those varieties shows a Heraldic Eagle with the arrows in the talon at left, the so-called Transposed Arrows reverse, W-5775. The other two use the same Heraldic Eagle dies but two different New York Arms dies, one showing the tiny eagle atop the shield facing to the left (W-5785) and the other, as seen here, showing that tiny eagle facing to the right. The Transposed Arrows variety is the rarest, with just six known. This is the rarer of the two others. Michael Hodder enumerated nine examples in our (Bowers and Merena's) March 1988 Norweb sale, with at least two duplicate listings: 1 - The Norweb coin, then graded Fine-15. Earlier ex Zabriskie, 1909. 2 - The NN48 coin (New Netherlands, November 1956, lot 771). Earlier ex Bushnell and Jackman, later in the 1988 Dabney Caldwell and 2000 ANA sales. Very Fine. 3 - The Robison coin (Stack's, February 1982, lot 153). Later reappeared in the Bowers and Merena sale of November 2002, lot 172, and most recently as lot 64 in the ANR sale of December 2005. PCGS VF-35 with some ruddy scale on the reverse. 4 - The Garrett coin (Bowers and Ruddy, November 1979, lot 598). Ex Stickney. Extremely Fine, or so, with minor planchet defects. 5 - The Roper coin (Stack's, December 1983, lot 272). Sold (without provenance) in the May 2022 Henry Dittmer "Long Island Collection" sale as NGC AU-58 for $105,000. 6 - Massachusetts Historical Society. Unseen. 7 - Crosby plate (the same as #9) 8 - Noted Eastern Collection. This is the Anton-Partrick piece, sold by Heritage (April 2021: 3025) as NGC EF-40 for $45,600. 9 - F.C.C. Boyd estate. This was Ford II:310, ex Parmelee and Crosby Plate. (Same as #7) In addition to those eight specimens, the Syd Martin example wasn't on the list (despite selling earlier in Stack's J.E. Stiles Collection sale the same decade as Norweb). Also missing was the very nice example Heritage sold in November 2017 (lot 16606) as PCGS EF-45, two fairly rough/corroded examples sold by Heritage in 2003 and 2014 (the first raw and the second NGC VF-25), and the specimen offered here. The mention of an example from the Eliasberg Collection in the Ford catalog was a red herring; Eliasberg's was a different variety. On their merits taken as a whole, we would probably rank the Roper-Dittmer coin best, followed by Ford's and the Syd Martin coin on the next tier, then three other pretty nice ones (Garrett, Anton-Partrick, Heritage 11-2017), then the rest. There appear to be about a dozen or so of these known. The historical importance of this issue is linked to the moment in time in the spring of 1787 when New York was considering a coinage of their own. There are not enough for this to have ever been a large scale production, intended to earn profits by circulating coppers of good weight. As a pattern issue, intended to influence the politically connected, the mintage is healthier than normal, indicating a very strong push to win a coinage contract. While the original documents refer to "the several petitions of John Bailey and Ephraim Brasher, relative to the coinage of copper," it is unknown if they issued these coins working together or if their petitions were separate. The George Clinton and Standing Indian coppers are related, but probably the work of a different petitioner: Thomas Machin. Another petition was filed by silversmiths Daniel Van Voorhis and William Coley, a partnership that created dies like those for Ryder-10 and Ryder-11, coined at the Vermont mint. Clearly, most of these coppers were disposed of into circulation rather than being cherished as something extraordinary at the time. Their importance as coins (or patterns) was ephemeral, and their relevance became moot at the time the Constitution reserved the coining prerogative to the Federal government in 1789. Today, they are rightly highly sought after by collectors.

PCGS# 424. NGC ID: B8E3.

From Heritage's CSNS Signature Auction of April 2020, lot 3008.

Estimate: $7500