1787 New Jersey Copper. Maris 71-y, W-5415. Rarity-6. Plaited Mane--Overstruck on a 1781 Contemporary Counterfeit Irish Halfpenny--Fine-12 (PCGS).
82.3 grains. Reverse aligned about 30 degrees counterclockwise from proper coin turn. A favorite variety among those who chase the New Jersey horseheads, rarely encountered, just about never pretty, and always overstruck. Light golden brown and steel with some rose undertones in protected areas from a long distant cleaning. Rough in some areas, smooth in others, a little too bright, but still pretty decent looking for this variety. The obverse is aligned to 6:00, leaving just the tops of 87 on the planchet and a bold frame of denticles around most of the top of that side. The reverse is aligned to 2:00 or so and shows denticles at the lower left. At the left obverse, NOVA is an afterthought intruding upon the GEORGIVS that runs complete from below the plow handles to the C of the otherwise lost CAESAREA. The 1781 date of the undertype is clear adjacent to the base of the harp, which shares real estate with the base of the New Jersey shield. The reverse legend reads something like E HLUIRIBBUNIA. It's a mess, with as much Irish halfpenny as New Jersey copper, and it's a good illustration of why collectors like this variety so much. No post-striking damage or bad marks are seen. The top two coins on the SHI Census remain unverified, graded AU and VF, so the best one folks have seen is the Spiro:1612-Frontenac VF. The Spiro:1611-Ford 2003 coin is next, graded VF-, followed by four graded Fine. The last of those is the E Pluribus Unum Collection coin, the Maris plate piece. Missing from the SHI Census (published 2013) is the Newman coin, which was sold as NGC Fine Details, Damaged in the November 2017 Newman IX sale but certainly deserves a census spot. Like this one, it was struck over a counterfeit 1781 Irish halfpenny; these are the only two we know of over that kind of host. It's a little hard to be certain, but the two hosts may even be struck from the same dies. This variety was missing from Partrick, and Ted Craige's had a square hole in it. Though only Rarity-6, this is a Maris number that still evades some pretty ambitious collectors. While not a Census listed piece, this example is far better than the (still collectible!) barking dogs at the back of the pack.
PCGS# 763351.
From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Mike Ringo, May 1990; our (Stack's) sale of the Peter Scherff Collection, March 2010, lot 2238.