| Description: |
Perhaps the best detailed specimen of this variety known, boldly struck and frosty with
even light honey brown surfaces. Crisp early die state; each hair, the profile, and the
centers to all stars but 12 and 13 are well defined. Attractive but subtle lustre, some
light surface dirt could be easily removed in a non-destructive fashion to bring around a
full serving of mint frost. A tiny spot after D of UNITED identifies this specimen as the
coin chosen by Dr. Sheldon as the reverse plate coin in Penny Whimsy; both sides were
chosen to illustrate the variety in the first edition of his still-standard reference,
Early American Cents of 1949. There are no marks to note, but a tiny spot inside star 9 is
noted as further identification. One of the best known and most obvious overdates in the
entire large cent series, a phenomenon that has made this variety desirable far beyond
others of commensurate rarity. The overdate, like many Turban Heads, is extremely rare in
top grade—a listing of the top ten known includes EF coins, and one of the nicer AUs is
forever locked away in the British Museum where it has resided since 1863. This coin is of
premium quality even among the few known Mint State coins and would add immensely to any
large cent collection.PCGS Population: 2; 2 finer (MS-65 RB finest). The MS-65 RB coin is
the Major Cole coin, finest known, which realized $60,500 in a 1997 Superior sale.
Judge
Thomas L. Gaskill, whose collection was sold to Dorothy Paschal (Sheldon's long-time
companion) through New Netherlands with the assistance of a young employee named Walter
Breen in 1956, was a judge in the Federal Bankruptcy Court of the District of New Jersey.
A hand-annotated manuscript prepared by Breen describing the transaction with grades and
values of each coin therein is still extant; his work was checked by at least two others.
The envelope which accompanies this lot includes some interesting notations beyond the
pedigree information. The bottom of the envelope reads "TE-P x 3" and is best
understood in the context of 1957, when the envelope was typed and when Sheldon had just
completed his chapter in Penny Whimsy entitled "Towards a Science of Cent
Values." The notation "TE" was Sheldon's personal code for the grade 65
(which is unusual since he called it a 60 when the book was written in 1949—maybe
ownership really does add five points?). P is the basal value of the coin, $1. That amount
($65) was mutiplied by 3 to determine the 1957 value as per the instructions on page 56 of
Penny Whimsy: "If known to be No. 2 of a variety, and full MS, Value equals Condition
times Basal Value times 3." Sheldon's scientific price system was obsolete within a
few years but speaks volumes about his analytical mind. A complete transcription of his
code, written in Walter Breen's hand and referred to as "the Rosetta Flip,"
survives in a private collection. Sheldon was known to have produced most of Paschal's
envelopes on his typewriter; he thanked his two typewriters by name in the preface of
Penny Whimsy.From the J.G. Morganthau and Co. sale of the Howard R. Newcomb Collection,
February 1945, Lot 474; to the collection of Judge Thomas Gaskill, sold privately through
the agency of New Netherlands Coin Company to Dorothy Paschal, a co-author of Penny Whimsy
with the young man who helped sell her the coins, Walter Breen; to the collection of
Charles Harrison. Dorothy Paschal's typewritten envelope (likely composed on one of Dr.
Sheldon's two typewriters, whose names were Horatio and Hazard) accompanies this lot.
Plated in both Early American Cents (1949) and Penny Whimsy (1958). |
