1787 Fugio 1C United States Club Rays, Concave Ends, BN MS(PCGS#910)

The November 2012 Baltimore Auction

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

6769

Grade

VG8BN

Price

6,169

Lot Description

Very Rare FUCIO Variety Club Rays, Concave Ends 1787 Fugio Copper. Club Rays. Newman 2-C, W-6630. Rarity-6. Concave Ends, FUCIO, UNITED STATES. VG-8 (PCGS). 152.7 grains. One of just 22 specimens of this rare major variety known to Rob; he ranked this one at 19. Medium brown with decent gloss despite scattered granularity, not enough to dissuade PCGS from assigning a numerical grade. A light rim bruise is present over 17 of the date, short scratch at left obverse exergue, no other significant flaws. FUCIO is soft but legible, date and nearly all legends complete. A pretty good looking specimen considering its grade. Very few survivors are what would be called "nice", as most show significant surface flaw. Rob reported a single Unc (not seen by him, reported from a long-standing East Coast collection). Among the others, the nice EF Breen plate coin leads the list, along with three other EFs and a number of VFs, most with some manner of flaw or other. This is the only variety with the FUCIO misspelling on the obverse, and the only collectible variety among the six Concave Ends varieties, three of which are unique, while the other two are both solid Rarity-7 (Newman 5-F and Newman 5-HH). As a major Red Book variety, this variety see more substantial demand pressure than other rarities in the series. With VF examples now worth over $20,000, pleasing lower grade examples like this become even more desirable to most collectors. PCGS# 910. Provenance: From the Rob Retz Family Collection. Purchased privately in 1995.