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Identifying a Colonial: rare Machin's Mills update
Whit
Posts: 318 ✭✭✭
Good evening everyone: With this note, I update a thread of last Dec. 26 in which I posted a couple of pictures of a colonial which I had very tentatively identified as a rare Machin's Mills piece. The consensus of much-more-informed readers was that the coin was the real deal. So in early January, I took the coin to Stack's/Bowers in NYC for a consult. Cut to the chase: the coin is indeed as suspected ... Vlack 13-87CT, 5 now known .... and it resides in a PCGS Genuine holder.
A different thread on this coin suggests that this coin was cherry-picked. I stress that the coin belongs to a retired couple who are not numismatists and did not realize what they had. As the fellow who has been helping them dispose of a small accumulation of low-end type material, I confess that I too did not know what they had. But a little research in a good book and help from the generous folks on this forum has resulted in a nice payday for them. I thank those who advised me on this coin, and I thank PCGS for sponsoring this forum.
Whit.
The original thread:
Good evening, all:
Below are links to a colonial dated 1787 that I have been trying to identify. I've looked at the Redbook and I've looked at Seaby, but have had no success. I have also look at Breen's encyclopedia, and find no photographic match there either. But it does have (to my eye, anyway) many of the earmarks of a Machin's Mills issue pictured in Breen. Breen's entry 998 (on page 98 of my edition) of which there is no accompanying picture refers to a 1787 issue called Round Head, with inscriptions GEORGIVS III REX / INDE ET LIB. I was ready to declare a tentative victory until I read further that there are only 3 pieces known. So I'm skeptical.
If you have any insights or suggestions, please weigh in. Thank you, and thanks to PCGS for providing this forum.
Good night.
Whit.
p.s. I'll be away from my computer much of the 27th, so will not be able to respond to any messages till late tomorrow night.
Side 1
Side 2
Another shot of Side 1
Another shot of Side 2
edited for spelling and updating
A different thread on this coin suggests that this coin was cherry-picked. I stress that the coin belongs to a retired couple who are not numismatists and did not realize what they had. As the fellow who has been helping them dispose of a small accumulation of low-end type material, I confess that I too did not know what they had. But a little research in a good book and help from the generous folks on this forum has resulted in a nice payday for them. I thank those who advised me on this coin, and I thank PCGS for sponsoring this forum.
Whit.
The original thread:
Good evening, all:
Below are links to a colonial dated 1787 that I have been trying to identify. I've looked at the Redbook and I've looked at Seaby, but have had no success. I have also look at Breen's encyclopedia, and find no photographic match there either. But it does have (to my eye, anyway) many of the earmarks of a Machin's Mills issue pictured in Breen. Breen's entry 998 (on page 98 of my edition) of which there is no accompanying picture refers to a 1787 issue called Round Head, with inscriptions GEORGIVS III REX / INDE ET LIB. I was ready to declare a tentative victory until I read further that there are only 3 pieces known. So I'm skeptical.
If you have any insights or suggestions, please weigh in. Thank you, and thanks to PCGS for providing this forum.
Good night.
Whit.
p.s. I'll be away from my computer much of the 27th, so will not be able to respond to any messages till late tomorrow night.
Side 1
Side 2
Another shot of Side 1
Another shot of Side 2
edited for spelling and updating
Whit
0
Comments
<< <i>Clearer photos from Whitmans colonial book. Somebody should do an "overlay" here to confirm.
side by side... instead?
<< <i>the last 7 appears different >>
it looks like a match in so many areas.(I want it to match just for the amazing find it would be)
perhaps it is a bad area in the photo from the redbook?
is this particular one in the online edition of the redbook? (going out in a sec)
stacks
First, I deeply thank all of you who have taken the time to consider and comment upon the posted colonial.
Second, I could not be more surprised. Two Octobers ago, I posted a Vermont colonial that was owned by a retired couple here in northwest CT … not collectors, but friends of the family who were wishing to dispose of a small accumulation. The feedback on that coin indicated that it was the scarce RR-3 variety. The coin I posted yesterday also belongs to this couple. It is their only other colonial, and two Octobers ago I didn’t make much of it, expecting it to be a common piece. Well, as I said, I couldn’t be more surprised. I have just emailed the owners of this tentative finding (I don’t want to be definitive until a top-tier auction house says so), and am looking forward to their response.
Again, I thank you.
Whit
edited to correct RR variety
Good luck!
"Look up, old boy, and see what you get." -William Bonney.
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection