New 1771 Halfpenny
JCMhouston
Posts: 5,306 ✭✭✭
I don't think I have shown this one, it just arrived this week, and it even has a good story. This one came from the Stacks sale, hidden away on about page 14 with the other 10-11 World coins they had. I had put in a marker bid on it of about 75% of what I thought it would go for and planned ahead so I was sitting in front of my computer for the auction. Everything looked good, until I decided to bid on a coin a couple of lots earlier that I liked but was not in my main collecting areas. It was going so cheap I said why not. I pressed the bid button, and nothing happened... keep in mind the audio and videa was working for the auction. I thought there must be some problem and with only a few lots remaining until this one I quickly shut down and rebooted the computer, I managed to get back into the auction just as this one was coming up for sale. Luckily my marker bid was still the high bid, and amazingly no one bid against it. About 10 lots later the auctioneer announced the (new and improved) online bidding was not working and you would need to load the old bidding sysytem.
So although I probably paid the most ever paid for a 1771 I still got it for less than my max by a good bit. Although graded 66 RB this is really a BN coin, it still has some mint red remaining in the devices but not enough to be a RB to me. Although the slab has lots of hairlines this is really a fantastic coin, wonderful light brown, mint red and some blue irridescent coloring. The surfaces are remarkably free of hits although there are a couple of small areas of die rust evident, and the strike is really nice, you can see all the fingers on Britannias hand.
I think it is remarkable for a 239 year old coin, of course that's just because it's mine now.
So although I probably paid the most ever paid for a 1771 I still got it for less than my max by a good bit. Although graded 66 RB this is really a BN coin, it still has some mint red remaining in the devices but not enough to be a RB to me. Although the slab has lots of hairlines this is really a fantastic coin, wonderful light brown, mint red and some blue irridescent coloring. The surfaces are remarkably free of hits although there are a couple of small areas of die rust evident, and the strike is really nice, you can see all the fingers on Britannias hand.
I think it is remarkable for a 239 year old coin, of course that's just because it's mine now.
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Comments
I think about buys like this every time I get caught up on a coin I really want with some guy who had too danged
many martinis at break time and I either pay too much or miss it entirely.
Finds like yours make it worth while sticking in there though.
It's just that I got my PCGS grades.
You don't often see hair details on a Geo.III-era Britannia! ... at least not on any of my coins!