Question about the Strawberry Leaf cent

Longacre

I read an article the other day that was fairly old (probably written in the 1980's) and it mentioned that the finest known Stawberry Leaf cent was graded in the G/VG range. The article specifically mentioned the coin that is currently up for auction. However, it seems that the current coin is graded F-12 by NGC. I don't know how to grade these, but I was wondering if anyone agrees with the F-12 grade?

MrEureka

Better to ask the question next week after more people have seen the coin and returned from Baltimore.

kranky

I suspect it won't matter much what people think about the grade. It's acknowledged to be the finest known of a very rare variety, and those early copper people are fanatical! I thought I read somewhere where the EAC grade was VG-8.

Conder101

It's listed in the EAC census as a VG-7.

The article you read, if it truly was from the 1980's could not have referred to the finest known NC-3 Strwberry leaf as being up for sale since it had not been seen since 1941. If the article was referring to the Ruby sale it could have meant the finest known NC-2 Strawberry leaf which was sold in the Ruby sale but it only grades FR-2. I believe only two collectors have ever owned both varieties of the Strawberry cent Charles Ruby and the current owner of the NC-2.

Pistareen

Hi Mike --

I think you meant to say Floyd Starr instead of Charles Ruby. Ruby never owned a Strawberry.

The folks who have owned both varieties are:
Dr. Thomas Hall, pre-1909
Virgil Brand, who bought the intact Hall collection
Floyd T. Starr, who included both varieties in the 1984 sale of his collection
the current owner of the NC-2 also owns an NC-3.

The finest known NC-2 was offered in 1984, but it is not the finest Strawberry. Of course, NC-2 is unique, so the best known is also the worst known!

In terms of the grade of the finest Strawberry (which sells tonight, about 8 PM eastern time), the VG-7 grade was determined by 90 year old photos of one side. After seeing the coin raw, I think most EACers would call it VG-8, sharpness of VG-10. It's a VG in the copper weenie world, Fine in the rest of the world, and twice as good as all the rest of them -- which is really the only stat that matters.

I've handled three of the four known pieces raw so far, and I get to see number 4 at the ANS next week (along with 2 or perhaps 3 others, depending upon who buys the finest known tonight).

kranky

The auction is tonight? Let's summarize what people guessed the price would be from a September thread.

eyoung429 $1.4 million
my3cents: north of $2 million
ziggy29 $800,000
kamehameha00: $800,000 - $900,000
elwood: $250,000 - $300,000
MrEureka: taking the under at $500,000
conder101: $175,000
JadeRareCoin: $150,000
kranky: $400,000
ColonialCoinUnion: $250,000

Pistareen

It looks like Jade is out, the $150,000 opening bid has already been met.

kieferscoins

Maybe that was jades bid and he was hoping he would win

Cameron Kiefer

eyoung429

Thanks for bringing those up Kranky....

I am still going to stand by my quote as there are too many collectors out there who have known about this sale for several months and with the way copper prices for rarities has been shooting through the roof, I think I may be pretty much in the ballpark.....


Either that or I have my head so far up my aZZ that I don't know better.

Conder101

Thanks for the correction John. I don't know why I always confuse Ruby and Starr (I've made the same mistake before.) And thanks for the information on the earlier owners of both Strawberry leaf varieties.