1787 Connecticut Copper. Miller 16.5-n, W-3025. Rarity-5+. Draped Bust Left—Dr. Hall Ink on Edge—AU-50 (PCGS).144.2 grains. Long considered “finest known” by Robert and other contemporaries, this coin is bested by the Perkins-Twin Leaf coin for sharpness, but this coin’s surfaces are better than Perkins-Twin Leaf and most other comparable examples, such as the lightly scratched EF Norweb coin. The 1975 Pine Tree EAC was called better than the Hall (i.e. this) coin, though based on a comparison to the plate in the 1975 sale, we believe Robert’s coin to be superior, as did he. It is better than the primary Ford, Collection SLT, and Craige (2013) coins. Rich chocolate brown, planchet flaw free, and displaying original mint gloss, especially on the reverse. Obverse centered toward the right, bringing the letters NEC in close contact with the rim, while the reverse legends are wholly on flan. A small rim clip below bust on obverse is actually around the 9 o’clock position of the reverse due to the dies being oriented at around 255 degrees. Here is a superb example of a coin that has had only four collector owners in more than a century, a coin whose die variety attribution “16-5 N” was inked on its edge by Dr. Thomas Hall, probably in the late 19th century!From the Robert M. Martin Collection. Ex Dr. Thomas Hall Collection; Virgil Brand Collection; Stack’s Sale of the Edward Hessberg Collection, June 19-20, 1991, lot 1391.
