1786 NJ 1/2P Maris 20-N, Drunken Diecutter, BN MS(PCGS#766264)

November 2025 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

1297

Grade

XF40BN

Price

3,000

Lot Description

141.5 grains. A well above average example of this popular variety, commonly called the Drunken Die Cutter for the poorly laid out obverse (though Maris 19-M has been adopted into the Drunken Die Cutter family as well). Both sides show choice and attractive two-tone contrast with medium brown devices against darker olive and brown fields. The fields are trivially granular, showing excellent eye appeal if not glossy smoothness. Both sides are fully struck and ideally centered, and neither obverse nor reverse show any substantial defects. This is a very nice piece. This is early die state, SHI DS1.<p>This piece misses the Condition Census, which is topped by the Ford AU and filled out with a half dozen other EFs. The PCGS EF-40 specimen that sold in our 2019 E Pluribus Unum sale, then reappeared in our 2022 sale of the Syd Martin collection, offered a different set of positives (glossy surfaces) and flaws (some planchet striations). That piece brought $5,160 in its last offering. The January 2013 Ted Craige coin was a raw EF of similar quality. The last time we offered one of the coins listed in the Condition Census was the 2003 Ford I sale.