1787 NY 1/2P Excelsior, Eagle Left, BN MS(PCGS#427)

March 2018 Baltimore U.S. Coins Auction

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3065

Grade

VF20BN

Price

10,200

Lot Description

Pleasing VF New York Excelsior Copper 1787 Excelsior Copper. W-5785. Eagle on Globe Left. VF-20 (PCGS). 137.6 grains. A perfectly lovely example for the grade, with attractive glossy surfaces toned a nice deep chocolate brown. Some areas are trivially granular under a glass, but not so much as to be evident in hand, or that the surfaces have lost their gloss. Clearly circulated for some time, like most examples of this issue, but never badly harmed in the process. Some minor edge bumps are seen, but none are serious; scattered fine contact points and a few hairlines, one little nick above Liberty (the left figure) noted for lack of something more evident to point out. Struck on a tight planchet, with just a little batch of denticles seen under the date. The Groves catalog called this: "one of the major New York rarities. A nice clean evenly worn coin, with no defect worth mentioning." While examples of this rarity turn up on the market now and again, most are low grade and poor surfaces are the rule rather than the exception. Newman's NGC Fine-15 was pretty rough, certainly not as appealing as this one; it brought $14,100. Provenance: From our (Stack's) sale of the Donald Groves [Partrick] Collection, November 1974, lot 334, via Lester Merkin; our sale of the Henry P. Kendall Foundation Collection, March 2015, lot 2509. PCGS# 427. Click here for certification details from PCGS.