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首席收藏网 > 数据中心 > Stack's Bowers and Ponterio > SBP-苏富比2017年3月波格集藏V

Lot:5104 1796 Liberty Cap Cent. Liberty Cap. Sheldon-84. Liberty Cap. Rarity-3. Mint State-66+ RB (PCGS).

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外国钱币

USD 160000 - 200000

SBP-苏富比2017年3月波格集藏V

2017-04-01 07:30:00

2017-04-01 12:30:00

USD 705000

SBP

成交

The 1500 pennies weighed exactly seventy-five pounds. Mr. Mehl shipped them by express and followed by the first train for Fort Worth. - Philadelphia Public Ledger, March 18, 1917, on B. Max Mehls acquisition of the Adler CollectionStunningly lustrous and still displaying nearly full original mint color, this coin stands alone as the finest surviving 1796 Liberty Cap cent. The fiery color of copper remains brightest around the devices, gently mellowing on the fields and devices to a dark violet blue that has not yet transitioned to brown. Libertys portrait on the Liberty Cap cents of 1796, open-lipped and looking skyward, is considered by many to be the most attractive of the early renditions of Liberty; she is beautifully presented here. Other design elements are also well rendered, even as the definition among the denticles near 9:00 on both sides is soft and the denomination, as always on the 1796 Liberty Caps, is not fully struck. Careful examination fails to find even a single post-striking mark of consequence. Some light marks in the incompletely struck regions are planchet texture, remaining from before striking. A lintmark crosses the leaf below A of STATES, and a similar struck-through is seen between C of AMERICA and the denticles above. A tiny and harmless spot hides behind Libertys lowest curl.The die state is early, equivalent to Breens State I, with no cracks or bulges. A line of spalling, called "scaling" by Breen, is present between ER of AMERICA, and an even lighter but similar line of spalling runs vertically in front of Libertys lips and chin. A microscopic vertical line, perhaps spalling or perhaps a very light fissure in the die face, is barely visible between the underside of Libertys chin and the pole below.The Liberty Cap is widely admired as the most beautiful cent design ever produced by the United States Mint. Inspired by Dupres famed Libertas Americana medal of 1783, it was coined for just four years, 1793 through 1796. Though depicting the same basic design, each of those years is distinctive. The 1793, featuring a high relief portrait by Joseph Wright and beaded borders, is considered the most desirable, especially in high grade. The cents of 1794 appear with a wide variety of portrait styles, divided into three main groups: the Head of 1793, the Head of 1794, and the Head of 1795. Devoted variety specialists pursue all 69 different die marriages, making the cents of 1794 the most celebrated year of the early cents. The cents of 1795 show less variety in portraiture, even as other distinctions are widely collected: thick and thin planchets displaying lettered and plain edges, the rare reeded edge Sheldon-79, and the Jefferson Head made outside the Mint by John Harper. The 1796 Liberty Cap is the last of the type, composed of six different obverses and 11 total die marriages before the motif was replaced with the Draped Bust of Liberty in the middle of the year. The portrait on the 1796 Liberty Caps is elegant, refined, and artistic, attracting attention from specialists and novices alike. None of the 1796 Liberty Cap varieties are terribly rare, nor can any of them be called common, even in low grades. In Mint State, or even choice upper circulated grades, they are rarities, avidly sought but rarely found.Gem 1796 Liberty Cap cents are profoundly rare. The Mills-Jackman-Sheldon Sheldon-84 is certified MS-65 BN (PCGS), and the Sheldon-Holmes Sheldon-91 is graded MS-66 BN (PCGS); the latter coin is represented twice on the PCGS Population Report, as reported in the January 2013 Cardinal Collection sale. The best 1796 Cap in the 2016 Tom Reynolds sale was the MS-63 BN (PCGS) Sheldon-81, ex Parmelee-Earle, and the best one in the 2008 Husak sale was the MS-64 BN (PCGS) Sheldon-84 with a provenance to the Essex Institute. While all of these are spectacular coins, none show significant mint color.It is difficult to imagine what a finer 1796 Liberty Cap cent would look like, not that any such coin exists. The first time this coin sold at auction, in June 1906, Henry Chapman described it as not only the finest 1796 Liberty Cap, but "the finest cent of this date known. Unique in this state of preservation." Its owner at the time, Major William Boerum Wetmore, had been collecting since about 1860, blessed with family wealth to acquire most any coin he wished. He purchased the Cohen Specimen of the 1804 dollar, a Class I Original, in 1878; his divorce from his cousin made the society pages in 1892, complete with allegations of gambling and other unpleasantness.With a high bid of $125, the coin was acquired by Dr. Lewis H. Adler, Jr., a Philadelphia physician who specialized in the southern terminus of the intestinal tract. It was added to a collection that was both immense and full of gems, but because it was never cataloged for public sale, the Adler Collection is little remembered today. B. Max Mehl acquired the entire collection, some 1,500 cents, in March 1917 for $10,000, "what we believe to be the largest single transaction of large United States Cents on record," according to Mehls Numismatic Monthly. Adler attempted "to secure the very best specimens that were offered," Mehl wrote, noting that it included "practically every date in uncirculated state of preservation, with specimens coming from some of the most famous collections, such as the Mills, Harlan P. Smith, Stickney, and others." A newspaper article about the purchase hit the Philadelphia newspapers and quickly spread nationwide, recounting that Mehl had "come all the way to this city for the purpose of obtaining 1500 one cent and half-cent pieces."Mehl was collecting large cents at the time, but there were just too many to keep. He wrote to collector Oscar J. Pearl in 1945 about his personal cent collection, recalling that the Adler Collection was "one of the finest ever formed," but that after most of it was sold off, his own collecting pursuits remained dormant until he handled the Dr. French Collection more than a decade later.Mehl saw this coin again when he acquired Dr. Frenchs cents, having sold it to Dr. Henry W. Beckwith soon after its initial acquisition. Beckwiths name remains synonymous with fanatical devotion to the pursuit of high grade cents even today. When Beckwiths cabinet was sold in 1923, this cent brought more than any cent in his cabinet not dated 1793 or 1804. This coins appearance at the Beckwith auction would be the last time it fell under the hammer until 2008.Ted Naftzger purchased this cent from T. James Clarke in Jamestown, New York, where Clarke resided and ran a box and label factory. Naftzger owned this cent for more than 50 years, until his death in 2007. While the bulk of his early date collection was sold in 1992, a select group of 34 pre-1815 cents was sold in September 2008, an extraordinary prelude to his core middle and late date collections sold in February and September of the following year.This coin has been sold at auction on just three occasions, and only once since 1923.

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