1787 Nova Eborac Copper. W-5765, Breen-988. Rarity-6+. Small Head. VF-30 (PCGS).
A thoroughly important example of this notable rarity, among the finest of the 10 or so known. The surfaces are even olive and steel, lightly granular but inoffensively so. The obverse is aligned to below 3 o'clock, the usual alignment for these, though not as far off as some. A significant raised rim and bold denticles frame most of the left periphery. The reverse is similar but with denticles and a raised rim at right. No significant marks are seen, just an old hairline scratch through the lips of the obverse portrait and a shallow scrape at the quatrefoil after LIB. The central devices are fully detailed. Many of these are softly struck (mostly due to the central sinking of the obverse die), or struck with poor axial alignment that resulted in uneven wear. Needless to say, collectors who acquire a "Small Head" want to actually be able to see the portrait. Fortunately, this has a good bold portrait, with just a bit of die state related swelling in the right obverse field that arcs around the chin to the throat. The Newman and Ford coins may be the best in private hands (we have not seen the one in the Massachusetts Historical Society, earlier from Appleton). The aforementioned trio happen to be the earliest three identified. Newman's was the Bushnell coin, which sold to Crosby at the 1882 Bushnell sale. Ford's was the Parmelee coin, later in the Mills and Winsor collections. And the MHS coin was Appleton's and apparently remains where he donated it over a century ago. The Whitman Encyclopedia suggests that these may come from the same shop as the 1787 Connecticut Muttonhead coppers, and stylistically the designs sure do look similar. The reverse seated figure is especially evocative of the Muttonhead. The designs certainly don't look much like the other Nova Eborac, and the textural elements (like planchet shape and quality) aren't very similar to the other Nova Eborac either. We've had three of these in the last 15 years. The best was very sharp, but perhaps not all that pretty, graded EF Details, Tooled (PCGS). Sold in our June 2021 sale, it may be the sharpest one known. The March 2013 Ted Craige coin was pretty granular, but still brought $15,275, and the Joel Geoffrey coin in our 2011 Americana sale was the lowest grade example of the three. Hodder listed 10 known to him. The three mentioned here are all additions to that list. There might be 15, and this is probably in the top third.
PCGS# 481.
From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from our (Stack's) sale of the John L. Roper, Jr. Collection, December 1983, lot 270; Heritage sale of the Donald Partrick Collection, January 2015, lot 5671; Heritage's sale of January 2016, lot 5212.

Estimate: $22000