1787 New Jersey copper. Maris 34-V. Rarity-6. Deer Head. Overstruck on 1787 New Jersey copper, Maris 35-J struck over 1788 Vermont RR16. VF-35 (PCGS).135.1 grains. Glossy deep olive with smooth attractive surfaces. An absolutely fascinating coin, as pretty as it is interesting. The Deer Head device is well struck, and the reverse shield is mostly well defined, denoting this as a piece from a relatively early die state of reverse v, only barely starting to swell at the upper left of the shield, likely Die State 2. Aside from its superb quality, the abundance of undertype makes this coin particularly desirable and fun to examine. The Maris 35-J host is present and easy to attribute (though this coin’s host was misattributed as a Maris 34-J in the 1984 Picker sale); the distance between AR of CAESAREA is different on obverse 35 than obverse 34, and that characteristic is clear above NOVA. Indeed, all of CAESARE from the undertype is clear at the left side of the obverse, and the plow and 1787 date are bold at the upper right side of the obverse — the date is even clear enough to see the 1787/1887 overdate of the Maris 35 obverse! The reverse is similarly interesting, with the mishmash of shield lines resembling a street map of Boston. Careful examination finds aspects that are clearly not from New Jersey: a peculiar 8 beneath an exergual line near 7:30 on the dominant obverse, a flattened I (from INDE) between the coulter and singletree, a V at the star after PLURIBUS that lines up with the MON at the lower left of the shield that comprises a ghostly VERMON, AUC of AUCTORI at the upper left point of the shield.<p>The Ryder-16 variety of Vermont was struck in 1788 at Machin’s Mill by the terms of the Vermont copper coinage contract, leaving us with the conclusion that this Deer Head variety was struck after 1788. Damon Douglas suggested that Col. Matthias Ogden’s mint at Elizabethtown was active overstriking New Jerseys on “the masses of depreciated coppers, foreign and other state coppers” between mid-1789 and early 1790, after state coinages were made illegal by the ratification of the Constitution. Our defining document took force after New Hampshire’s adoption in June 1788. By 1790, the Federal government was already at work, and Ogden’s coppers were as illegal as conspiring with a hostile foreign power. Ogden’s mint continued without the benefit of rolling mills or planchet cutting equipment after spring 1788, meaning his planchets had to be already struck coins. In June 1790, a committee of the New Jersey Assembly reported on “the fraudulent practices of persons who have stamped Birmingham and Connecticut coppers with the same impression as those of this state, and have afterwards passed them to others … some persons availed themselves of the difference [in value] and have changed the impression of a considerable quantity of light and base Coppers, converting one shilling worth of those Coppers into three shillings worth of New Jersey Coppers.” The jig was up, and Elizabethtown’s mint probably did not continue much beyond the publication of the committee report. Ogden died in March 1791, ending the production of New Jersey coppers permanently, but not until after his fascinating Deer Heads (and the related overstrikes like the 70-x, 71-y, 72-z, and 73-aa) had been produced in some quantity.<p>Very few of Ogden’s productions survive in this kind of condition. This piece is listed as second finest in the SHI Condition Census (though it may be third after the appearance of the previous lot) and is plated in their book on p. 317. This coin has been famous since the 1984 Picker sale. It has also been off the public market ever since.From the E Pluribus Unum Collection of New Jersey Coppers. Earlier, from Stack’s sale of the Richard Picker Collection, October 1984, lot 207; William Anton Collection; E Pluribus Unum Collection, via Larry Stack.
