1787 Connecticut copper. Miller 37.3-i, W-4110. Rarity-3. Draped Bust Left. MS-61 BN (PCGS).123.2 grains. A stunning coin, seemingly penalized for the natural planchet cutter mark error that has left an arc on its fully lustrous and overwhelmingly frosty surfaces. Traces of mint color remain against beautiful steel and navy blue fields, as intensely lustrous as any Connecticut of this type. Both sides are superbly well struck, with excellent detail from centers to peripheries. The obverse is aligned to 4:30, leaving the denticles in the upper left a little soft at their outer extremities. The reverse is spun a few degrees counterclockwise from coin turn and aligned to the upper right, leaving the bun and upper hand at the edge of the planchet. The face on the seated figure, apparently no great work of high art, is as crisply defined here as ever seen. A light striation in the cuirass behind the portrait, and another in the hair below CO, are well hidden and insignificant. The obverse die shows cracks from the rim left of the first C of CONNEC and extending into the left field from the juncture of forehead and hair. The eye appeal of this piece far exceeds its assigned grade, as does its technical grade. The Perkins catalog of 2000 offered the Choice AU John Carter Brown coin as the finest known. It is hard to imagine this one doesn’t surpass it.PCGS Population: 5; 7 finer (MS-64+ BN finest).From the Archangel Collection. Earlier, from Stack’s sale of September 1977, lot 21.
