| Description: |
139.2 grains, 28.4 mm at unrolled portion. One of the most fascinating large cents we have
ever encountered and a personal favorite since we first examined this piece over a decade
ago. Choice chocolate brown with smooth surfaces, gentle wear, excellent eye appeal.
Boldly overstruck on an 1806 British halfpenny, with George III's profile standing out
boldly at central reverse with the 1806 date clear at UN of UNITED. The seated figure
Britannia is also bold at central obverse, edge engrailing still plain in areas. Submitted
to a rolling mill at some point, which squeezed the area from 11:00 to 3:00 on the obverse
evenly from each side, ostensibly as a cancellation attempt at the Mint. Rolling mills
were an expensive and unusual piece of technology that were not widely available in this
period of the 19th century, though the Mint had several sets of mills in the 1830s.
Large
cents are the most avidly studied of all American series, the subject of intense research
since the days when they could still be found in circulation. In that time, precisely two
large cents have been identified as being struck over foreign coins -- both of which are
offered in this sale! There are three large cents known struck over Talbot, Allum, and Lee
tokens, struck after the Mint purchased thousands of these tokens for use as half cent
planchets. Both known specimens of 1795 NC-2 are stuck on TAL tokens, as is a unique
Sheldon-75 in the Smithsonian Institution collection. A few 1798 cents are known to be
struck on planchets intended for British merchant tokens and showing some evidence of
their lettered edge device, but none have been identified as overstruck. This example,
undoubtedly a purposely struck piece de caprice, is an exceptional and extremely rare
double denomination that makes the boldest possible visual statement -- a head of George
III surrounded by the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Just about every kind of striking
error known to occur on large cents, from multiple strikes to brockages, is downright
common compared to the rarity of an overstruck large cent. As this cataloguer noted in
2001, "few large cent errors can compare to this coin for its amazing visual effect
or its absolute rarity." We are no less excited by this amazing cent today than when
it first passed under our loupe, and we can only imagine this coin will excite others in a
similar manner.Please see Lot 477 for the only other known large cent struck atop a
foreign coin, a newly discovered 1838 N-10 struck on a George II halfpenny.Richard August
to John Kraljevich in January 1993; Bowers and Merena's sale of January 2001, Lot 44; to
our present consignor. |
