Undated (1795) Liberty and Security Penny. Musante GW-45, Baker-30, W-11050. Copper. Lettered Edge. MS-66 BN (PCGS). CAC.，A carefully chosen specimen that is not only the finest graded by PCGS in any designation, it is a genuinely pretty example that ticks all the boxes of a type coin. The strike is medallic in quality and about as complete as one will readily find for the type, just a trivial softness noted at epaulet, row of Washingtons hair curls, and stars on the reverse. Light brown fields shimmer with rose and blue iridescence in the lightly prooflike fields, a generous amount of original mint red populating the reverse, with just a touch mint color surviving within the central strokes of the obverse legends. Breen surmised that this Liberty and Security issue made by Peter Kempson in 1795 was a speculative attempt to land a coinage contract at a time when the fledgling US Mint was foundering, though no specific information exists to substantiate this theory. Now mostly hidden from view in slabs, the edges of these Washington pieces can be fascinating-here the edge reads AN ASYLUM FOR THE OPPRESSD OF ALL NATIONS, an interesting motto given the politics of today.，PCGS# 767. NGC ID: 2B7U.，PCGS Population: 1; none finer in any designation.，From the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation. Earlier from the Liberty Collection of American Colonial Coinage, Part Three (Heritage, May 2008, lot 2059); Heritages Sale of Heritages New York Sale of March 2012, lot 3040.
