1787 Connecticut Copper. Miller 17-g.3, W-3040. Rarity-3. Draped Bust Left—Triple Struck—EF Details—Repaired (PCGS).148.9 grains. Previously described as a double strike, this glossy chocolate brown coin actually has clear evidence of three separate strikes. The first two were closely overlapping, with one mostly obscuring the other. The third strike is the wildest and most obvious, about 50% off-center with an obverse indent strike, meaning that another planchet intervening between the obverse die and this coin during the third strike, leaving the distinct indented arc across the obverse. The upper left obverse a bit pitted, and the soft but deep depression at effigy’s shoulder is what we believe PCGS is considering the repair—there is a small flan flaw in that area visible from the reverse, which has sharp details around it. There would be no physical way to have such sharp details on the reverse and such a deep depression on the obverse. Called “1M/D-3 Planchet very defective Uncirculated” on B.G. Johnson’s 1936 listing of the Hall-Brand collection.From the Robert M. Martin Collection. Ex Dr. Thomas Hall Collection; Virgil Brand Collection; Harold Bareford Collection, purchased from New Netherlands on October 25, 1951; Stack’s Sale of the Harold Bareford Collection, October 22, 1981, lot 17.
