1785 Contemporary Imitation Halfpenny. George III English Type. Newman 50-85A. Very Fine.122.2 grains. Light brown, glossy and attractive, notwithstanding a single green pit in right reverse field. Eric Newman wrote about the 1781 and 1785 counterfeit halfpence in his seminal 1988 ANS <em>Museum Notes</em> 33 article, documenting the dies and pairings then known to him; this was the plate coin for obverse 50 and reverse 85A, and serves in that capacity for obverse 50 in the 1785 Family chapter in the 2018 reference <em>Contemporary Counterfeit Halfpenny & Farthing Families</em>. The Newman 50-85A die marriage is extremely rare, missing from the 1998 C4 Auction of the preeminent Mike Ringo Collection of 1781 and 1785 counterfeit halfpence, with no appearances in our online archives. In fact, the authors of the 1785 Family chapter had to rely on an image of the 1988 Newman Plate to illustrate obverse 50, further demonstrating the rarity of live specimens of this die pairing that they could have photographed for the chapter. This coin in fact brought $4,560, a final recognition of the die pairings rarity and this coins overall attractiveness.From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from Heritages sale of the Eric P. Newman Collection, Part XI, November 2018, lot 15043.
