Undated (Circa 1663-1672) St. Patrick Farthing. Breen-208. Nothing Below King. Copper. AU-58 (PCGS).;112.7 grains. An outstanding example of the type that boasts overall smooth, glossy, copper brown surfaces. Indeed, the planchet is remarkably well produced and preserved. Only upon close inspection with a loupe do we see the tiniest of pits in and around the centers, and these are so trivial as to be easily overlooked and just as easily forgiven. The strike is nothing short of extraordinary for the type, both sides perfectly centered with universally sharp detail from the borders to the centers. Seldom have we handled a St. Patrick farthing that allows such complete appreciation of the design. There are essentially no post-production blemishes, and it obvious to us that this coin never saw actual commercial use. Indeed, no less a numismatic personality than Dr. Edward Maris described this coin as Uncirculated in the cataloging for the 1886 sale of his collection: "Uncirculated. Bold impression. Finest I have ever seen." The insignificance of whether this coin is more accurately graded as Mint State or AU was addressed nicely by the cataloger in our (Bowers and Ruddys) sale of the Garrett Collection, Part III, October 1980, in which this coin was offered as lot 1385:<p><em>It has been the cataloguers experience that 19th-century numismatists were often more liberal in grading than our present day students of early American coins. While the present coin may indeed merit the description <strong>Uncirculated</strong>, a more conservative classification would be AU. This point is perhaps moot, for neither Maris a century ago nor we today have ever seen a finer piece.</em><p>While PCGS has since certified an example in MS-63 BN, and they also report two additional grading events at the AU-58 level, we are confident that the Garrett specimen remains one of the finest St. Patrick farthings available to todays discerning collectors of early American coinage.<p>The St. Patrick or Mark Newby coinage was brought to America from Dublin, Ireland in 1681 by the latter, who settled in the colony of New Jersey. In May 1682, the General Assembly of New Jersey made the coinage legal tender, with both the "farthing" and "halfpenny" pieces circulating widely. It is generally thought the pieces originated in Ireland circa 1663 to 1672 for the larger of the two denominations, the so-called halfpenny, features the Arms of Dublin on the reverse shield.;From the Dr. Gordon Shaw Collection. Ex Sylvester S. Crosby; Dr. Edward Maris; Stanislaus V. Henkels sale of the Maris Collection, June 1886, lot 351; T. Harrison Garrett; our (Bowers and Ruddys) sale of the Garrett Collection for The Johns Hopkins University, Part III, October 1980, lot 1385. Collector envelope with Garrett provenance notation included.