1788 Connecticut Copper. Miller 16.5-H, W-4625. Rarity-5. Draped Bust Left. AU-50 (PCGS).119.3 grains. The Miller Sale Coin. A Clark Obverse Plate Coin, pictured to illustrate the late die state showing extreme degradation of the obverse, which rather than cracking appears to be gradually disintegrating, with no one point of major failure. Surfaces are glossy chocolate brown, the strike full but the design features soft on the obverse due to die failure, Liberty’s head soft due to some minor planchet flaws and a planchet cutter lip in that area. Called About Uncirculated in the Ford sale, bringing just a few hundred dollars less than the “Uncirculated” one also in that sale. This one appears to be more worn but choicer than the Uncirculated coin, and as Miller’s own coin, it holds a special place in the hearts of Connecticut die variety enthusiasts. In the Ford Sale, we wrote that this coin was “Described on one of its square collectors tickets (a cut down Henry Chapman envelope) as ’16.6-H* new variety of Obv.’ Could this have been the discovery coin for obverse 16.6? Tom Elder seems to have picked up the earlier comments for his catalogue description of this piece.” Though the square ticket no longer survives, and 16.6-H has been folded back into 16.5-H as a die state of the latter, this high grade, possibly condition census coin is significant in the history and evolution of the collecting of Connecticut coppers by die marriage.From the Robert M. Martin Collection. Ex Tom Elder’s Sale of the Henry C. Miller Collection, May 29, 1920, lot 2072; Hillyer Ryder Collection; F.C.C. Boyd Collection; John J. Ford, Jr.; Stack’s Sale of Part 9 of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, May 10, 2005, lot 504; Stack’s Americana Sale of January 2010, lot 4221.
