1723 Farth Hibernia, Silver SP(PCGS#179)

1723 Farth Hibernia, Silver SP (PCGS#179)

Summer 2026 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Description du lot: This pretty piece exhibits attractively original toning in sandy-silver with an intermingling of subtle powder blue and champagne-pink, the borders with a desirable pull-away effect at the design elements. There are signs of old cabinet handling here, mostly in the form of light friction in the fields, but the strike detail remains virtually full in the absence of all but a faint trace of high point rub. No sizeable marks are seen, and there is plenty of luster that combines frosty and semi-reflective qualities. Wood's Hibernia farthings in silver were once considered to be incredibly rare, and Eric P. Newman had marked his own as "probably unique" at some point in the early 20th century. However, a small hoard of about two dozen pieces came out of hiding in England during the late 1950s. First brought to light by Baldwin's of London, the pieces were housed in a silver tube with silver halfpenny ends; the group had descended directly from the Wood family into the hands of Albert Baldwin, whose firm then dispersed the lot. Now as then, these off-metal strikings are extremely popular with advanced collectors. We later offered the silver tube with silver halfpenny ends in our (Stack's) September 2009 Americana Sale.