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Numismatic Treasures #1: 1793 "Strawberry Leaf" Cent
LeeG
Posts: 12,162 ✭
Let's travel back to the beginning of coinage in our great country. This one is a true treasure and worth the read: 
Few collectors have ever seen an example of this very rare variety, so seldom does one appear for sale. According to numismatic researcher John Kraljevich of American Numismatic Rarities in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, this specimen is one of just four known in all. One is permanently impounded in the collection of the American Numismatic Society in New York, while two others belong to advanced cent collector Dan Holmes. In Kraljevich’s estimation, the cent which recently surfaced after being sequestered for more than 60 years is the finest of the four. It is notable also as the plate coin in the 2005 edition of R. S. Yeoman’s A Guide Book of United States Coins.
The story of how this coin resurfaced after decades in hiding is quite intriguing. It began a few months ago when a lady entered the store of Republic Jewelry & Collectibles in Auburn, Maine. She stated to an employee that she had with her a very rare Strawberry Leaf cent dated 1793, so the employee called over owner Dan Cunliffe to view it. The lady told a story of how her father had purchased this coin around 1941 and had presented it to her mother as an anniversary gift. In August of 1943 the father was killed in action in the Pacific Theater, and his widow put the coin away as a cherished memento. It was later hidden from sight inside a bank vault and only rarely spoken of within the family until a few weeks ago. With the recent passing of the widow, this coin became the responsibility of her heirs, who determined that it should be returned to the numismatic market that would appreciate its great significance.
The cent was contained in a ragged envelope indicating that its purchase price in the 1940s had been just $2750. Reaching for a copy of Yeoman’s Guide Book, it appeared to the dealer that this was indeed the very rare Strawberry Leaf cent. He agreed that the coin was extremely valuable and a museum caliber rarity.
The family wanted to place the coin in a public auction, believing this to be the safest and surest method of determining a fair market value, so John Pack of American Numismatic Rarities was contacted. From the description of the coin over the phone, Pack identified this specimen as the plate coin in Yeoman’s Guide Book and thus the same specimen included in the famous 19th Century Collection of Lorin G. Parmelee. Given the great value and importance of this coin, Pack arranged to travel to Maine to provide for its insurance and secure shipment to NGC. It has now been encapsulated by NGC with the pedigree designation PARMELEE COLLECTION.
Sold for $414,000 in the 2004 ANR Frog Run Farm Collection Auction
1793 NC-3. Rarity-8. Strawberry Leaf. F-12 (NGC).
13.10 grams. Among the 295 die varieties of early cents numbered by Dr. William Sheldon, in addition to the 53 varieties so rare he deemed them "non-collectible," no variety captures the imagination of early American copper specialists so much as the 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent. Only four are known, all of which are well worn, a fact that no doubt contributes to the aura of mystery and desirability that surrounds them. The long-unknown whereabouts of the finest known specimen, a coin that is numerically twice as fine as the next best example, only adds to that aura and cachet.
That finest known example has reappeared, and now, in 2004, those who have awaited their chance to purchase a specimen of this charismatic rarity are rewarded. This coin is the Parmelee 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent, untraced since 1941 and not offered publicly since 1890. We are delighted to be the first numismatic researchers since Sylvester S. Crosby to examine this coin, and we are honored to present it for public sale to collectors for the first time in 114 years.
Its surfaces are finely and evenly granular and dark brown, the devices a medium shade of brown that contrast with the deeper toning present in the fields. Some scattered microscopic pits are visible on Liberty's cheek, but for the most part the devices are smooth and pleasing. The sharpness of this piece is almost incomparable to the other two privately-held Strawberry Leaf cents, called "tired and worn out" by their present owner. The word LIBERTY is complete and well-defined, with even and well-formed letters of small size, essentially identical in scale and character to those found on the obverse of every 1793 Wreath cent variety but for Sheldon-5. Likewise, the date on this specimen is complete, and like the word LIBERTY it closely resembles the date digits found on other 1793 Wreath cents—the numeral 3 has a delicate bottom curve that appears weak at its lowest point, identical to Sheldon 6 through 11 as noted above, and the 9 with its short bottom stroke is likewise similar to that digit on other Wreath cents, though most like the numeral as punched on the obverse of Sheldon-10. Breen noted in a 1959 article in Empire Topics that this specimen is "the only strawberry leaf coin with all four numerals of the date legible," allowing for the easiest comparison of the very strong similarity between these digits and the potentially identical punches used on other 1793 Wreath varieties.
The figure of Liberty again bears strong similarities to other 1793 Wreath cents, with the three lowest strands of hair long and of nearly equal length, two shorter strands above, another single long strand near the center, and several shorter strands above—this closely parallels the hair on other 1793 Wreath cents. Indeed, the only notable difference between this obverse die and other 1793 Wreath cents is also the precise reason for its fame: a cluster of four small trefoil (three-lobed) leaves above the date and below the truncation of Liberty's bust. These leaves closely parallel those found within the wreath on every 1793 Wreath cent variety, though they are not from the same punch as once suggested by Breen. On no other specimen of the famed Strawberry Leaf cent is the namesake design element so clearly defined. Though they are not precisely identical to the leaves on other Wreath cent reverses, it should be noted that if one looks at any two different trefoils on any single Wreath cent reverse, they are different—each was individually engraved. Around the top of the obverse of this coin, traces of the peripheral beading are present above ERTY of LIBERTY.
Careful examination of the obverse reveals some light flaws, commensurate with the amount of wear on the coin. Each acts as an identifier that links this coin with its past and future pedigree: a tiny rim nick at 10:00, a nick at the juncture of the hair and the high forehead, a nick under the lowest point of the lowest lock, a nick just inside the rim near 3:00, and a few other tiny marks or abrasions. This obverse has been chosen to illustrate the Strawberry Leaf variety in every edition of the Guide Book since 1946, Ed Frossard's 1879 Monograph of United States Cents and Half Cents, issued Between 1793 and 1857, and Sylvester S. Crosby's 1897 The United States Coinage of 1793. The reverse of this coin was likewise illustrated in Crosby's work on 1793s.
This reverse sets the NC-3 apart from the unique NC-2, which was discovered earlier. David Proskey was the first to identify this reverse die, with its distinctive high positioning of ONE CENT, and it was this coin that served as the discovery specimen. Proskey catalogued this exact specimen in 1877, when he wrote "1793 Wreath Cent. 'Stars and stripes' on edge with three clover leaves and blossom under the bust. Fair condition, but date and legend perfectly distinct. Unique, both obverse and reverse being from a different die to the one described by S.S. Crosby, Esq." Proskey was wrong about this piece being from a different obverse die, but he gets credit for recognizing the difference in the reverse. On this specimen, the tops of STATES OF are worn into the rim, and the fraction is a bit weak, but all other devices and legends are bold. A rim bruise is noted over M of AMERICA, and a few old vertical scratches near the left ribbon end are long since toned over. The style of the wreath and lettering bears a very marked similarity to other 1793 Wreath cent reverses.
The edge, though now unfortunately obscured in the certification holder, has been studied and photographed. John Kleeberg, in his important if controversial study on Strawberry Leaf cents in the 1996 ANS COAC proceedings, noted that the edge could be key to answering the ancient question of the origin and purpose of this distinctive design. Eric Newman offered that "accepting the finding that the edge decoration on each strawberry leaf cent differs from the edge decoration of the other strawberry leaf cents and that the edge decoration was cut into each such coin manually and not by Castaing methods" he would posit that the pieces were 19th-century forgeries for collectors, perhaps produced by a character like the infamous re-engraver Smith of Ann Street. Kleeberg noted that he compared the edge of the Strawberry Leaf cents and concluded that "I think the edge was added by hand." The present cataloguer (John Kraljevich) studied the two privately held specimens of the Strawberry Leaf cent along with a Sheldon-5 Wreath cent graciously provided by Dan Holmes at the April 2004 EAC show, before the present coin was rediscovered. When placed atop each other, then twisted and turned like so many facets of a Rubik's Cube, the edges of both Strawberry Leaf cents and the 1793 S-5 lined up precisely—a fact that Mr. Holmes was the first to discover. The edge die used to impress the device on the Strawberry Leaf cents on the Castaing edging machine was identical, i.e. the exact same edge die, as the one that edged that particular S-5-and probably other Wreath cents as well. This proves that the planchets were produced at the U.S. Mint and strikes down theories of extralegal origin, unless a farfetched theory of the removal of blank planchets from the Mint were to be constructed.
As per a request of Eric Newman, we have likewise scrutinized the Strawberry Leaf cluster and see absolutely no suggestions of disturbance, re-engraving, or other tomfoolery. The weights of the known Strawberry Leaf cents are all within an appropriately close range of the Mint standard 13.48 grams weight. Kleeberg calls himself a "partisan" of the theory that the 1793 Strawberry Leaf cents are contemporary counterfeits. Based upon the ease of making cast counterfeits rather than creating three new and distinctive steel dies, such a theory does not pass the common sense test for us. When further considering the fact that most circulating counterfeits duplicate worn coins (thus making them easier to pass), yet these cents are produced to a weight standard that was abandoned for a lighter one in mid-1795, the scenario becomes even less likely. The new discovery that these cents were produced with the precise same edge die as other collectible 1793 Wreath cent varieties should firmly place this and other theories in the past and confirm this enigmatic issue as an unusual product of the U.S. Mint.
"But why strawberry leaves (or clover, or laurel, etc.)?" a numismatist might wonder. The first year of coining cents for circulation at the Mint was clearly a series of trials and errors: the weight standard was lowered in January 1793, before a single coin could be struck for circulation at the original statutory weight. Chain cents were struck, then the designs were changed to the more attractive Wreath design, before finally switching gears to use Joseph Wright's masterful Liberty Cap motif. Several different edge motifs were tried: a lettered edge with one leaf, the same lettering followed by two leaves, as well as the "vine and bars" edge that was used on the Chain cents and Wreath cents, including the Strawberry Leaf pieces. Clearly the Mint was not placing a high premium on consistency of design. We are tempted to suggest that the Strawberry Leaf design was merely the result of a bit of artistic license by a Mint engraver, or it could have been the initial design for a type whose later evolution would include only olive leaves as obverse decoration. Undoubtedly the difference in design is more noteworthy to modern numismatists than to those who produced or used cents in Philadelphia in 1793. From the level of wear present on the four known specimens, it is clear that they were produced to circulate and succeeded in their assigned role.
As one of the most celebrated rarities of the 19th century—a coin which evoked enough passion to cause a brawl on an auction room floor (see more below)—it is a wonder the Strawberry Leaf is not as passionately pursued today. One of the great rarities offered at the Parmelee sale was a Class I 1804 dollar, now in the Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. That piece sold for $570, about five times what this exact coin brought in the same sale. Over the 114 years since the Parmelee sale, there have been dozens of appearances of an 1804 dollar at auction, including some 17 appearances of a Class I 1804 dollar. While an 1804 dollar is an antedated fantasy, its fame grew at every auction appearance. The Strawberry Leaf cents have been on the market far fewer times and exposed much less to the greater collecting populace in the 20th century, indeed, only twice in the history of the variety has a collector owned a piece for less than a decade!
The history of this specimen is nearly as fascinating as the Strawberry Leaf variety itself. After its discovery by Proskey as the first with the high ONE CENT reverse, the piece was purchased at auction by the famous Boston bean baker Lorin Parmelee (for more on whom, see below). While Parmelee enjoyed "horse trading," this piece was not sold until his entire cabinet was consigned to auction in 1890. It was purchased by another Bostonian, a physician named Dr. Thomas Hall who is best known for his pioneering 1892 work on varieties of Connecticut coppers. The Hall monograph used a system that was followed by Henry Miller and remains the taxonomic standard for Connecticut coppers today. After his death in May 1909, the entire Hall cabinet was purchased intact by Chicago brewing magnate Virgil Brand, including hundreds of colonial coins, large cents, and medals. At the time, Brand had already been collecting for two decades and had developed an insatiable appetite for numismatics, a lifelong passion that is well-described in Dave Bowers' Virgil Brand: A Man and His Era. After his death in 1926, Brand left behind a vast estate including tens of thousands of numismatic items, a holding that was left to his brothers Horace and Armin at the time of his death and was not fully dispersed until the 1980s. In the decades following Brand's death, portions of the collection were consigned to various leading dealers, and in 1941 Armin Brand began to consign large cents from the estate to St. Louis dealer Burdette G. Johnson. Johnson was the proprietor of St. Louis Stamp and Coin Company and served as one of the largest wholesale dealers in the nation at the time, often handling multiple specimens of great rarities—most memorably, all five specimens of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel from the Col. E.H.R. Green estate.
The very first consignment Armin Brand made to Johnson was 17 1793 cents, on an invoice dated February 7, 1941. All 17 of those cents were Condition Census specimens, and among their number were specimens of all five "NC" varieties of the year then known! Two of those "NCs," as Dr. Sheldon would call them a few years later, are still unique and another (1793 NC-1) was unique at the time and is still 44 points finer than the only other known example. It is telling that, despite the great rarities and the number of superb Mint State 1793 Wreath and Chain cents included (such as the beautiful Koshkarian Sheldon-9 we sold last year for $241,500), the only piece Johnson was able to sell within one year of the consignment was the present specimen, the finest 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent. It was selected before the finest Sheldon-1, the finest NC-1, the second finest Sheldon-4 (considered better than the Eliasberg-Jung piece we recently sold for $391,500, a world record), the finest Sheldon-7, the finest Sheldon-9, and a number of other incredible 1793 cents. James Kelly, a dealer who had a long-standing professional relationship with Johnson, took the piece on consignment from Johnson in May 1941 for $2,500—an incredible sum at the time- and quietly sold it the same year to a nearly unknown collector from Maine, Roscoe E. Staples, for $2,750. In the same era, both the Childs and Dexter 1804 Class I dollars sold in the $4,000 to $5,000 range, an indication of just what $2,750 could buy (like, for instance, a pretty nice house). A few months later, when a new Strawberry cent was discovered (the AG-3 Starr NC-3), it was offered at $2,500 but found no buyers; it sold for $1,200 at auction in 1950.
The Staples family has held the coin since 1941, but its original purchaser enjoyed the piece for all too short a period of time. Roscoe Staples, a successful businessman, joined the Maine National Guard in 1934 as a second lieutenant and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1940, then captain in 1941 as a great world war approached. As a member of the 103rd Infantry, Staples embarked for the Pacific theatre in fall 1942 after having already been away from his Maine home for a year— it appears by the time he purchased this coin from James Kelly he had already left for training elsewhere in the United States. In early 1943, Staples' regiment was part of a force that left for Guadalcanal and received further training in jungle warfare on the nearby islands. A few months later, in the summer of 1943, orders came down the chain of command that Staples was to help command the regiment as it worked to secure the Munda airfield in the Solomon Islands, then under the control of the Japanese. A young naval officer from nearby Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, captained a PT board off the coast of Munda (now New Georgia) to patrol for Japanese destroyers during the same action. Kennedy was famously injured when a Japanese vessel collided with his PT-109 off the coast on the night of August 1, 1943. A few miles away the next day, while his troops were actively engaged in taking the Munda airfield from the remaining Japanese forces, then-Major Staples was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper who paid for his actions with his own life. Staples was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for bravery, and he was noted for being "a brilliant officer who had the respect of his men and his superiors." The airfield was secured soon after, after a month of incredible difficulty, on August 5, 1943. His citation noted that "although his duties as a regimental S-3 did not require him to expose himself to enemy fire at the front lines, Major Staples repeatedly visited the companies at forward areas to check the progress of operations and to make suggestions to company commanders in an effort to save lives and to bring the battle to a decisive finish. Major Staples' courage and devotion to duty were an inspiration to the troops and contributed immeasurably to the success of operations."
While World War II and a 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent would seem to have little in common, we feel it is important to recognize the character and contributions of a little-known past owner of this famous coin. While Proskey, Parmelee, Johnson, and others are well-known to numismatists, and many rare coins can be traced to their hands, Staples' most notable contributions clearly came outside of the realm of numismatics. Since Staples' death, the coin has remained with his family, still enclosed in the 1941 James Kelly envelope. Its significance both as family heirloom and numismatic rarity have always been appreciated.
NGC Census: 1; none finer. This is the only 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent to have been certified by any grading service.
As noted above, the most famous (though perhaps not the most recent) case of numismatic fisticuffs revolved around a specimen of this precise variety. As described in Carl Carlson's superb November 1978Numismatist article entitled "Strawberry Leaves and Shiners," the ANS example of the NC-3 was the root of a physical struggle between two of the most respected dealers of their era: Ed Frossard and Lyman Low. When the Merritt-Haines-ANS specimen was presented for public sale in December 1894 as part of Frossard's 130th auction, for some reason Lyman Low called Frossard a "liar," though what he lied about is not recorded. Two later recollections of the scene have survived and both describe how Frossard and Low ended up rolling around on the floor until pulled apart by Harlan P. Smith, who lost a diamond stick pin in the fracas. A.G. Heaton noted the "two numismatic sages were soon mixed up on a dusty floor in a manner that would have made football adversaries envious of their combative qualities until, in a badly circulated condition, they were dragged apart by dismayed spectators." Charles Steigerwalt, who sold the piece offered today to Dr. Thomas Hall after the Parmelee sale, noted in a 1911 piece that the Parmelee specimen "described as 'good' was really 'fine' and the best known" and went on in the sale article to state that Frossard and Low "rolled around on the floor of the auction room, trying to kick each other." Notably, Carlson chose to illustrate his article with a photo of this exact specimen, taken from the 1897 Crosby plate.
First identified by David Proskey; Scott & Co.'s sale of October 1877, Lot 201 (at $77.50); purchased on the floor by H.G. Sampson, acting for Lorin G. Parmelee, outbidding Joseph N.T. Levick's $75 commission for Sylvester S. Crosby; New York Stamp and Coin Co.'s sale of the Parmelee Collection, June 1890, Lot 671 (at $79); purchased by Charles Steigerwalt and resold to Dr. Thomas Hall in October 1890 for $90; sold as part of the intact Hall Collection to Virgil Brand on September 7, 1909; Brand estate; consigned by Armin Brand to B.G. Johnson along with 16 other important 1793 cents on February 7, 1941; to James Kelly in May 1941 for $2,500; to Roscoe E. Staples for $2,750; Staples family.
Information provided here from the Stacks and NGC websites.
Few collectors have ever seen an example of this very rare variety, so seldom does one appear for sale. According to numismatic researcher John Kraljevich of American Numismatic Rarities in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, this specimen is one of just four known in all. One is permanently impounded in the collection of the American Numismatic Society in New York, while two others belong to advanced cent collector Dan Holmes. In Kraljevich’s estimation, the cent which recently surfaced after being sequestered for more than 60 years is the finest of the four. It is notable also as the plate coin in the 2005 edition of R. S. Yeoman’s A Guide Book of United States Coins.
The story of how this coin resurfaced after decades in hiding is quite intriguing. It began a few months ago when a lady entered the store of Republic Jewelry & Collectibles in Auburn, Maine. She stated to an employee that she had with her a very rare Strawberry Leaf cent dated 1793, so the employee called over owner Dan Cunliffe to view it. The lady told a story of how her father had purchased this coin around 1941 and had presented it to her mother as an anniversary gift. In August of 1943 the father was killed in action in the Pacific Theater, and his widow put the coin away as a cherished memento. It was later hidden from sight inside a bank vault and only rarely spoken of within the family until a few weeks ago. With the recent passing of the widow, this coin became the responsibility of her heirs, who determined that it should be returned to the numismatic market that would appreciate its great significance.
The cent was contained in a ragged envelope indicating that its purchase price in the 1940s had been just $2750. Reaching for a copy of Yeoman’s Guide Book, it appeared to the dealer that this was indeed the very rare Strawberry Leaf cent. He agreed that the coin was extremely valuable and a museum caliber rarity.
The family wanted to place the coin in a public auction, believing this to be the safest and surest method of determining a fair market value, so John Pack of American Numismatic Rarities was contacted. From the description of the coin over the phone, Pack identified this specimen as the plate coin in Yeoman’s Guide Book and thus the same specimen included in the famous 19th Century Collection of Lorin G. Parmelee. Given the great value and importance of this coin, Pack arranged to travel to Maine to provide for its insurance and secure shipment to NGC. It has now been encapsulated by NGC with the pedigree designation PARMELEE COLLECTION.
Sold for $414,000 in the 2004 ANR Frog Run Farm Collection Auction
1793 NC-3. Rarity-8. Strawberry Leaf. F-12 (NGC).
13.10 grams. Among the 295 die varieties of early cents numbered by Dr. William Sheldon, in addition to the 53 varieties so rare he deemed them "non-collectible," no variety captures the imagination of early American copper specialists so much as the 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent. Only four are known, all of which are well worn, a fact that no doubt contributes to the aura of mystery and desirability that surrounds them. The long-unknown whereabouts of the finest known specimen, a coin that is numerically twice as fine as the next best example, only adds to that aura and cachet.
That finest known example has reappeared, and now, in 2004, those who have awaited their chance to purchase a specimen of this charismatic rarity are rewarded. This coin is the Parmelee 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent, untraced since 1941 and not offered publicly since 1890. We are delighted to be the first numismatic researchers since Sylvester S. Crosby to examine this coin, and we are honored to present it for public sale to collectors for the first time in 114 years.
Its surfaces are finely and evenly granular and dark brown, the devices a medium shade of brown that contrast with the deeper toning present in the fields. Some scattered microscopic pits are visible on Liberty's cheek, but for the most part the devices are smooth and pleasing. The sharpness of this piece is almost incomparable to the other two privately-held Strawberry Leaf cents, called "tired and worn out" by their present owner. The word LIBERTY is complete and well-defined, with even and well-formed letters of small size, essentially identical in scale and character to those found on the obverse of every 1793 Wreath cent variety but for Sheldon-5. Likewise, the date on this specimen is complete, and like the word LIBERTY it closely resembles the date digits found on other 1793 Wreath cents—the numeral 3 has a delicate bottom curve that appears weak at its lowest point, identical to Sheldon 6 through 11 as noted above, and the 9 with its short bottom stroke is likewise similar to that digit on other Wreath cents, though most like the numeral as punched on the obverse of Sheldon-10. Breen noted in a 1959 article in Empire Topics that this specimen is "the only strawberry leaf coin with all four numerals of the date legible," allowing for the easiest comparison of the very strong similarity between these digits and the potentially identical punches used on other 1793 Wreath varieties.
The figure of Liberty again bears strong similarities to other 1793 Wreath cents, with the three lowest strands of hair long and of nearly equal length, two shorter strands above, another single long strand near the center, and several shorter strands above—this closely parallels the hair on other 1793 Wreath cents. Indeed, the only notable difference between this obverse die and other 1793 Wreath cents is also the precise reason for its fame: a cluster of four small trefoil (three-lobed) leaves above the date and below the truncation of Liberty's bust. These leaves closely parallel those found within the wreath on every 1793 Wreath cent variety, though they are not from the same punch as once suggested by Breen. On no other specimen of the famed Strawberry Leaf cent is the namesake design element so clearly defined. Though they are not precisely identical to the leaves on other Wreath cent reverses, it should be noted that if one looks at any two different trefoils on any single Wreath cent reverse, they are different—each was individually engraved. Around the top of the obverse of this coin, traces of the peripheral beading are present above ERTY of LIBERTY.
Careful examination of the obverse reveals some light flaws, commensurate with the amount of wear on the coin. Each acts as an identifier that links this coin with its past and future pedigree: a tiny rim nick at 10:00, a nick at the juncture of the hair and the high forehead, a nick under the lowest point of the lowest lock, a nick just inside the rim near 3:00, and a few other tiny marks or abrasions. This obverse has been chosen to illustrate the Strawberry Leaf variety in every edition of the Guide Book since 1946, Ed Frossard's 1879 Monograph of United States Cents and Half Cents, issued Between 1793 and 1857, and Sylvester S. Crosby's 1897 The United States Coinage of 1793. The reverse of this coin was likewise illustrated in Crosby's work on 1793s.
This reverse sets the NC-3 apart from the unique NC-2, which was discovered earlier. David Proskey was the first to identify this reverse die, with its distinctive high positioning of ONE CENT, and it was this coin that served as the discovery specimen. Proskey catalogued this exact specimen in 1877, when he wrote "1793 Wreath Cent. 'Stars and stripes' on edge with three clover leaves and blossom under the bust. Fair condition, but date and legend perfectly distinct. Unique, both obverse and reverse being from a different die to the one described by S.S. Crosby, Esq." Proskey was wrong about this piece being from a different obverse die, but he gets credit for recognizing the difference in the reverse. On this specimen, the tops of STATES OF are worn into the rim, and the fraction is a bit weak, but all other devices and legends are bold. A rim bruise is noted over M of AMERICA, and a few old vertical scratches near the left ribbon end are long since toned over. The style of the wreath and lettering bears a very marked similarity to other 1793 Wreath cent reverses.
The edge, though now unfortunately obscured in the certification holder, has been studied and photographed. John Kleeberg, in his important if controversial study on Strawberry Leaf cents in the 1996 ANS COAC proceedings, noted that the edge could be key to answering the ancient question of the origin and purpose of this distinctive design. Eric Newman offered that "accepting the finding that the edge decoration on each strawberry leaf cent differs from the edge decoration of the other strawberry leaf cents and that the edge decoration was cut into each such coin manually and not by Castaing methods" he would posit that the pieces were 19th-century forgeries for collectors, perhaps produced by a character like the infamous re-engraver Smith of Ann Street. Kleeberg noted that he compared the edge of the Strawberry Leaf cents and concluded that "I think the edge was added by hand." The present cataloguer (John Kraljevich) studied the two privately held specimens of the Strawberry Leaf cent along with a Sheldon-5 Wreath cent graciously provided by Dan Holmes at the April 2004 EAC show, before the present coin was rediscovered. When placed atop each other, then twisted and turned like so many facets of a Rubik's Cube, the edges of both Strawberry Leaf cents and the 1793 S-5 lined up precisely—a fact that Mr. Holmes was the first to discover. The edge die used to impress the device on the Strawberry Leaf cents on the Castaing edging machine was identical, i.e. the exact same edge die, as the one that edged that particular S-5-and probably other Wreath cents as well. This proves that the planchets were produced at the U.S. Mint and strikes down theories of extralegal origin, unless a farfetched theory of the removal of blank planchets from the Mint were to be constructed.
As per a request of Eric Newman, we have likewise scrutinized the Strawberry Leaf cluster and see absolutely no suggestions of disturbance, re-engraving, or other tomfoolery. The weights of the known Strawberry Leaf cents are all within an appropriately close range of the Mint standard 13.48 grams weight. Kleeberg calls himself a "partisan" of the theory that the 1793 Strawberry Leaf cents are contemporary counterfeits. Based upon the ease of making cast counterfeits rather than creating three new and distinctive steel dies, such a theory does not pass the common sense test for us. When further considering the fact that most circulating counterfeits duplicate worn coins (thus making them easier to pass), yet these cents are produced to a weight standard that was abandoned for a lighter one in mid-1795, the scenario becomes even less likely. The new discovery that these cents were produced with the precise same edge die as other collectible 1793 Wreath cent varieties should firmly place this and other theories in the past and confirm this enigmatic issue as an unusual product of the U.S. Mint.
"But why strawberry leaves (or clover, or laurel, etc.)?" a numismatist might wonder. The first year of coining cents for circulation at the Mint was clearly a series of trials and errors: the weight standard was lowered in January 1793, before a single coin could be struck for circulation at the original statutory weight. Chain cents were struck, then the designs were changed to the more attractive Wreath design, before finally switching gears to use Joseph Wright's masterful Liberty Cap motif. Several different edge motifs were tried: a lettered edge with one leaf, the same lettering followed by two leaves, as well as the "vine and bars" edge that was used on the Chain cents and Wreath cents, including the Strawberry Leaf pieces. Clearly the Mint was not placing a high premium on consistency of design. We are tempted to suggest that the Strawberry Leaf design was merely the result of a bit of artistic license by a Mint engraver, or it could have been the initial design for a type whose later evolution would include only olive leaves as obverse decoration. Undoubtedly the difference in design is more noteworthy to modern numismatists than to those who produced or used cents in Philadelphia in 1793. From the level of wear present on the four known specimens, it is clear that they were produced to circulate and succeeded in their assigned role.
As one of the most celebrated rarities of the 19th century—a coin which evoked enough passion to cause a brawl on an auction room floor (see more below)—it is a wonder the Strawberry Leaf is not as passionately pursued today. One of the great rarities offered at the Parmelee sale was a Class I 1804 dollar, now in the Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. That piece sold for $570, about five times what this exact coin brought in the same sale. Over the 114 years since the Parmelee sale, there have been dozens of appearances of an 1804 dollar at auction, including some 17 appearances of a Class I 1804 dollar. While an 1804 dollar is an antedated fantasy, its fame grew at every auction appearance. The Strawberry Leaf cents have been on the market far fewer times and exposed much less to the greater collecting populace in the 20th century, indeed, only twice in the history of the variety has a collector owned a piece for less than a decade!
The history of this specimen is nearly as fascinating as the Strawberry Leaf variety itself. After its discovery by Proskey as the first with the high ONE CENT reverse, the piece was purchased at auction by the famous Boston bean baker Lorin Parmelee (for more on whom, see below). While Parmelee enjoyed "horse trading," this piece was not sold until his entire cabinet was consigned to auction in 1890. It was purchased by another Bostonian, a physician named Dr. Thomas Hall who is best known for his pioneering 1892 work on varieties of Connecticut coppers. The Hall monograph used a system that was followed by Henry Miller and remains the taxonomic standard for Connecticut coppers today. After his death in May 1909, the entire Hall cabinet was purchased intact by Chicago brewing magnate Virgil Brand, including hundreds of colonial coins, large cents, and medals. At the time, Brand had already been collecting for two decades and had developed an insatiable appetite for numismatics, a lifelong passion that is well-described in Dave Bowers' Virgil Brand: A Man and His Era. After his death in 1926, Brand left behind a vast estate including tens of thousands of numismatic items, a holding that was left to his brothers Horace and Armin at the time of his death and was not fully dispersed until the 1980s. In the decades following Brand's death, portions of the collection were consigned to various leading dealers, and in 1941 Armin Brand began to consign large cents from the estate to St. Louis dealer Burdette G. Johnson. Johnson was the proprietor of St. Louis Stamp and Coin Company and served as one of the largest wholesale dealers in the nation at the time, often handling multiple specimens of great rarities—most memorably, all five specimens of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel from the Col. E.H.R. Green estate.
The very first consignment Armin Brand made to Johnson was 17 1793 cents, on an invoice dated February 7, 1941. All 17 of those cents were Condition Census specimens, and among their number were specimens of all five "NC" varieties of the year then known! Two of those "NCs," as Dr. Sheldon would call them a few years later, are still unique and another (1793 NC-1) was unique at the time and is still 44 points finer than the only other known example. It is telling that, despite the great rarities and the number of superb Mint State 1793 Wreath and Chain cents included (such as the beautiful Koshkarian Sheldon-9 we sold last year for $241,500), the only piece Johnson was able to sell within one year of the consignment was the present specimen, the finest 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent. It was selected before the finest Sheldon-1, the finest NC-1, the second finest Sheldon-4 (considered better than the Eliasberg-Jung piece we recently sold for $391,500, a world record), the finest Sheldon-7, the finest Sheldon-9, and a number of other incredible 1793 cents. James Kelly, a dealer who had a long-standing professional relationship with Johnson, took the piece on consignment from Johnson in May 1941 for $2,500—an incredible sum at the time- and quietly sold it the same year to a nearly unknown collector from Maine, Roscoe E. Staples, for $2,750. In the same era, both the Childs and Dexter 1804 Class I dollars sold in the $4,000 to $5,000 range, an indication of just what $2,750 could buy (like, for instance, a pretty nice house). A few months later, when a new Strawberry cent was discovered (the AG-3 Starr NC-3), it was offered at $2,500 but found no buyers; it sold for $1,200 at auction in 1950.
The Staples family has held the coin since 1941, but its original purchaser enjoyed the piece for all too short a period of time. Roscoe Staples, a successful businessman, joined the Maine National Guard in 1934 as a second lieutenant and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1940, then captain in 1941 as a great world war approached. As a member of the 103rd Infantry, Staples embarked for the Pacific theatre in fall 1942 after having already been away from his Maine home for a year— it appears by the time he purchased this coin from James Kelly he had already left for training elsewhere in the United States. In early 1943, Staples' regiment was part of a force that left for Guadalcanal and received further training in jungle warfare on the nearby islands. A few months later, in the summer of 1943, orders came down the chain of command that Staples was to help command the regiment as it worked to secure the Munda airfield in the Solomon Islands, then under the control of the Japanese. A young naval officer from nearby Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, captained a PT board off the coast of Munda (now New Georgia) to patrol for Japanese destroyers during the same action. Kennedy was famously injured when a Japanese vessel collided with his PT-109 off the coast on the night of August 1, 1943. A few miles away the next day, while his troops were actively engaged in taking the Munda airfield from the remaining Japanese forces, then-Major Staples was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper who paid for his actions with his own life. Staples was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for bravery, and he was noted for being "a brilliant officer who had the respect of his men and his superiors." The airfield was secured soon after, after a month of incredible difficulty, on August 5, 1943. His citation noted that "although his duties as a regimental S-3 did not require him to expose himself to enemy fire at the front lines, Major Staples repeatedly visited the companies at forward areas to check the progress of operations and to make suggestions to company commanders in an effort to save lives and to bring the battle to a decisive finish. Major Staples' courage and devotion to duty were an inspiration to the troops and contributed immeasurably to the success of operations."
While World War II and a 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent would seem to have little in common, we feel it is important to recognize the character and contributions of a little-known past owner of this famous coin. While Proskey, Parmelee, Johnson, and others are well-known to numismatists, and many rare coins can be traced to their hands, Staples' most notable contributions clearly came outside of the realm of numismatics. Since Staples' death, the coin has remained with his family, still enclosed in the 1941 James Kelly envelope. Its significance both as family heirloom and numismatic rarity have always been appreciated.
NGC Census: 1; none finer. This is the only 1793 Strawberry Leaf cent to have been certified by any grading service.
As noted above, the most famous (though perhaps not the most recent) case of numismatic fisticuffs revolved around a specimen of this precise variety. As described in Carl Carlson's superb November 1978Numismatist article entitled "Strawberry Leaves and Shiners," the ANS example of the NC-3 was the root of a physical struggle between two of the most respected dealers of their era: Ed Frossard and Lyman Low. When the Merritt-Haines-ANS specimen was presented for public sale in December 1894 as part of Frossard's 130th auction, for some reason Lyman Low called Frossard a "liar," though what he lied about is not recorded. Two later recollections of the scene have survived and both describe how Frossard and Low ended up rolling around on the floor until pulled apart by Harlan P. Smith, who lost a diamond stick pin in the fracas. A.G. Heaton noted the "two numismatic sages were soon mixed up on a dusty floor in a manner that would have made football adversaries envious of their combative qualities until, in a badly circulated condition, they were dragged apart by dismayed spectators." Charles Steigerwalt, who sold the piece offered today to Dr. Thomas Hall after the Parmelee sale, noted in a 1911 piece that the Parmelee specimen "described as 'good' was really 'fine' and the best known" and went on in the sale article to state that Frossard and Low "rolled around on the floor of the auction room, trying to kick each other." Notably, Carlson chose to illustrate his article with a photo of this exact specimen, taken from the 1897 Crosby plate.
First identified by David Proskey; Scott & Co.'s sale of October 1877, Lot 201 (at $77.50); purchased on the floor by H.G. Sampson, acting for Lorin G. Parmelee, outbidding Joseph N.T. Levick's $75 commission for Sylvester S. Crosby; New York Stamp and Coin Co.'s sale of the Parmelee Collection, June 1890, Lot 671 (at $79); purchased by Charles Steigerwalt and resold to Dr. Thomas Hall in October 1890 for $90; sold as part of the intact Hall Collection to Virgil Brand on September 7, 1909; Brand estate; consigned by Armin Brand to B.G. Johnson along with 16 other important 1793 cents on February 7, 1941; to James Kelly in May 1941 for $2,500; to Roscoe E. Staples for $2,750; Staples family.
Information provided here from the Stacks and NGC websites.
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Comments
Lee, brother, you are a numismatist.
<< <i>Lee, brother, you are a numismatist. >>
Oh yea...
Thanks for another GREAT read Lee.
<< <i>Lee, brother, you are a numismatist. >>
Man, I'll sure second that! Great post Lee. And I'm really happy you've started to do these kinds of posts with earlier coins. Looking forward to a few posts on colonials!
As always, Lee.... kudos.
<< <i>
<< <i>Lee, brother, you are a numismatist. >>
Man, I'll sure second that! Great post Lee. And I'm really happy you've started to do these kinds of posts with earlier coins. Looking forward to a few posts on colonials!
I'll Second, no Third, or whatever the previous.
I love reading these posts
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
-Randy Newman
Sunnywood
Sunnywood's Rainbow-Toned Morgans (Retired)
Sunnywood's Barber Quarters (Retired)
<< <i>Looking forward to a few posts on colonials!
I'll see what I can do.
Thanks for the Education
edited to add: doh, i missed the bottom line of where the information came from.
nice reference.
either way a fun read for a coin i have only heard about vaguely.
now i know though!
A fabulous rarity, nice photo, scintillating commentary by John K, fisticuffs(!), a tribute to veterans. Just a great thread.
What I wonder about is this: was this single coin the sum total of the late Mr. Staples' collection? Was it a "box of one"?
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
To answer some other questions:
Yes, it is absolutely, 100% unquestionably a U.S. Mint product. I'd stake my reputation on it.
Yes, I wrote the catalogue description for the ANR sale. It took me about two long days. The NGC page was based upon one of our promo press releases from ANR.
No, it wasn't the only piece Mr. Staples owned. In fact, he had a bunch of nice large cents (they were his favorites) and some other pretty nifty things too.
Writing up this thing was one of the absolute highlights of my numismatic life -- thanks to Lee for the nice walk down memory lane
Betts medals, colonial coins, US Mint medals, foreign coins found in early America, and other numismatic Americana
<< <i>It took me about two long days. >>
The fact that it was written in only two days is almost as impressive as the coin itself!
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
If a Google search is performed for “Strawbery Leaf cent,” this is the first article that appears in the search results. I believe that this coin is now in a PCGS holder.
Strawberry Leaf 1793 Cent Sells for $862,500: An Auction Record for a Copper Coin
As for the two Strawberry Leaf Cents in the Dan Holmes Collection,
All-Time Most Complete Collection of Early Large Cents: Incredible Accomplishment of Dan Holmes