'1747' 1/2P Machin's, Vlack 1-47A, BN MS(PCGS#826933)

Spring 2026 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

1403

Grade

XF45BN

Price

3,120

Lot Description

130.0 grains. Medal turn. An important high grade example of this distinctive American-made counterfeit halfpenny, attributed by Howes, Rosen, and Trudgen (HRT) to the workshop of John Bailey in New York City. Attractive deep olive brown with nicely contrasting medium ruddy brown devices. Trivially granular in the fields under a glass, but very attractive and free of major post-striking defects. The planchet shows a substantial straight clip left of 12 o'clock atop the obverse and a curved clip at 6 o'clock oriented to that side. Neither affect significant design elements, aided by the fact that the reverse is notably misaligned to 12 o'clock or so. The curved clip is entirely outside of the denticles and beyond the die edge at the base of the reverse, allowing the entire date to be present and sharp. Some inherent planchet texture remains visible at central reverse, affecting the first date digit. Some similar texture is noted on the obverse, but the portrait is nearly fully struck, rarely seen on examples of this variety. Two minor obverse rim nicks are seen at 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock , and an oval-shaped pit is present at the king's forehead.<p>This piece deserves a spot in the Condition Census, listed as "VF-30 to AU-50" in the 2nd edition of the Howes, Rosen, and Trudgen book <em>The History and Coinage of Machin's Mills</em>. The unusual die rotation is also of interest. While we can't say we've been paying a lot of attention to the question (and it is unmentioned in the HRT book), we can't recall seeing many medal-turn examples from these dies before (though two of the five in the Richard August Collection are struck with this alignment). Howes, Rosen, and Trudgen note that this variety shares "characteristic E and X letter punches" that link this variety to other counterfeit halfpence like the 17-87A, 17-87B, and 17-87E, along with issues of historic importance including the Brasher doubloon, Nova Eborac coppers, Excelsior patterns, and the Running Fox coppers in the New Jersey series. Its status as the only George II type in the Machin's series has always made it an important type coin, one rarely found this nice. The only example we've offered graded finer by PCGS happens to be the sole coin graded finer by PCGS of this issue: the AU-55 Syd Martin coin, which brought $7,200 in our sale of March 2023. The choice VF-35 (PCGS) Jack Royse coin brought $11,162.50 in our sale of November 2012, and the lovely EF-40 (PCGS) E Pluribus Unum coin sold in our November 2020 sale for $5,040.