1694 Carolina Elephant token. Hodder 1-E, W-12100. PROPRIETERS. MS-63 BN (PCGS).139.9 grains. Frosty light golden brown with superlative visual appeal for the grade. Some mint color surrounds central reverse lettering, and bold luster is present on both sides. The obverse is extraordinarily sharply struck and nearly ideally centered, with the shortest denticles in the upper right. The reverse is more notably aligned to 10:00, with long spread denticles around the right side. The fields are nearly immaculate, with only a shallow old scratch extending up from G of GOD and a circular scratch seen on the second E of PROPRIETERS. The overall aesthetic appeal is superb.<p>In the Parson sale of 1914, Henry Chapman noted that just three examples of this rare variety were known: the coin then up for sale, which last appeared in the Ford II sale after spending most of the 20th century in the Ellsworth and Garrett collections; the Parmelee coin, which appears to have been acquired in the 1871 Clay sale and eventually found its way into the Norweb Collection; and this coin, which Chapman wrote “has been forever withdrawn from competition, being in the Appleton Collection, donated to the Massachusetts Historical Society.” Chapman noted that Crosby knew of only the Appleton coin and the Parmelee coin. As Crosby wrote before 1873, Appleton acquired this specimen before then. A future researcher may determine where.<p>Today, there are four more specimens accounted for than in 1914, making a total of seven. Roper’s was a Ryder-Boyd coin and a Ford duplicate, nicer than the VF grade it was assigned but showing some scratches. The Newman coin proved to be one piece that was double counted in older censuses, Fine or so with traces of old gilding. The Robison coin was similarly worn, and the most recently discovered specimen was sold in the Summer 1986 <em>Rare Coin Review 61</em>. <p>The three of these known to Henry Chapman in 1914 are still the three nicest examples. Ford’s was particularly lovely; this one is similar. It is the finest - and only - example of this variety certified by PCGS.PCGS Population: 1, none finer.From the Archangel Collection. Earlier, from Stack’s 1976 American Numismatic Association sale, August 1976, lot 87; the William Sumner Appleton Collection, to the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society by bequest in 1905.
