Machin's Mills Halfpenny
1778 Machin's Mills Halfpenny. Vlack 11-78A, W-7820. Rarity-3. GEORGIVS III, Group III. AU-50 (PCGS).
96.0 grains. AU-58 in terms of wear, though PCGS has opted for a lower grade as a result of the as-made planchet flecking that is common to the variety and that is most intense through the lower legs and globe of Britannia. Even the Newman piece, graded MS-62 by both PCGS and NGC, was not immune to some planchet flaking. Sharply struck and lustrous, with glossy chocolate brown surfaces that are an ideal hue for a Confederation era copper. It has been posited that some of the dates on the Machin's Mills halfpence for which no genuine halfpence exist can be explained as commemoratives, such as 1776 for Independence and 1778 for the laying of Thomas Machin's famous iron chain across the Hudson River to stop the British advance during the Revolutionary War. If true, these would be some of America's earliest commemorative coins, far earlier than the 1848 $2.50 gold pieces stamped CAL., celebrating it being struck from the first gold shipped east from the California Gold Rush.
PCGS# 466 and #826952.
From the E Pluribus Unum Collection.
Estimate: $2000