1795 Pattern Draped Bust Half Eagle. Judd-23, Pollock-37, BD-4. Rarity-8 for the Type, Unique for the Die Combination. Copper. Reeded Edge. Very Fine Details—Defaced (Uncertified).3.16 grams. Struck from the regular issue dies known as BD-4 or Breen 2-C. A small handful of copper strikes of 1700s-dated US silver and gold coins are known, such as the 1797 Large Eagle $10 we sold in our (Stacks) July 2008 auction or the 1798 Silver Dollar struck on a copper fragment that was in our (Stacks) August 2007 sale. Various theories have been advanced as to why they exist, but the most likely seems the simplest-use a cheap piece of metal to test the die rather than potentially spoiling a precious metal planchet. Three different examples of Judd-23 exist, struck from 3 different die pairings (Breen 1-A, Breen 2-C and Breen 3-D), and each are unique as such. The first two, including this one, show signs of defacement, while the third is struck over some unidentified host coin. Other similar copper strikings of gold coins show some sign of defacement, such as the 1797 $5 in copper and the 1799 $10 in copper. Defacement was sensible to a contemporary non-numismatist, as it would have prevented an unscrupulous party from plating a base metal coin in gold and passing it off at full face value to an unwitting recipient. This piece was no exception, and shows signs of variously shaped punches on both sides, in addition to at least two bouts of creasing and uncreasing which left the surfaces decidedly wavy. The coin is a rich chocolate brown, with relatively smooth wear amidst a bit of granularity, which has led some past viewers to surmise that this was a cast counterfeit. In fact Pollock himself notes that this specimen was (e)examined by the present author for the ANA Certification Service. Unfortunately the heavy granular texture of the surface made determination of authenticity tentative at best. Possibly a cast counterfeit. Although neither of the major grading services would certify this piece--NGC called it not suitable for certification while PCGS called it authenticity unverifiable on the tags sent back with the coin-we believe the piece to be fully authentic though obviously impaired, and we caution interested parties that neither of these grading certification services will certify the coin. We showed the coin to some prominent numismatists at a recent coin show, and they had no objections to the coins authenticity, nor do we. The last Judd-23 to sell publicly, the overstruck piece graded VF-30 by PCGS, realized $40,250 at auction in 2007. Though lacking the surface quality of that example, this example is equally rare and deserving of a home in an advanced set of early US Mint patterns or early US Half Eagles.This lot will be accompanied by a small dossier of letters and research info on the piece, as well as the NGC and PCGS tags cited above.
