1787 New Jersey copper. Maris 57-n. Rarity-6+. Camel Head. Overstruck on 1771 Machin’s Mills halfpenny, Vlack 2-71A. VF-25 (PCGS).111.1 grains. There are a few different classes of New Jersey rarities. Some are unique or nearly so, so rare that they are off the radar of all but the few collectors whose goal to acquire 90 or more varieties are likely to come true. Some are extremely rare, but lacking a certain je-ne-sais-quoi personality. And some, like Maris 57-n, are more numerous by total population than other rarities, but have a long-term legendary status and personality that enables them to punch above their weight. Perhaps it’s their proximity to the very common Maris 56-n. Perhaps it’s the mystery created by using an eye-catching double strike on the Maris plate (see next lot). Perhaps it’s the distinctive motif, with the horsehead “thrown further back,” as Maris wrote. Dr. Maris knew of only two examples in 1881: the piece in the following lot and the example sold in the 1980 Garrett sale as lot 1456. When Breen accomplished his unpublished work on New Jerseys in the mid 1950s, he recorded just five specimens known to him. In 1990, John Griffee counted 12.<p>Neither Norweb nor Taylor ever got a Maris 57-n, nor did Douglas or Bareford. The best Spiro could get was the famous “humdinger” specimen, an otherwise choice piece with three holes that filled this space in the Oechsner, Foreman, and Griffee collections and now graces the cabinet of Roger Moore.<p>This example is among the sharpest known, ranked sixth in the SHI Condition Census. Its surfaces are finely and evenly granular, but not unattractively so, pleasantly toned light steel brown. The III ordinal from the Machin’s Mills halfpenny that served as the host is plainly visible above the plow handles. The 1787 date of the New Jersey die is complete, and denticles frame the top of the well-centered obverse. The reverse appears ideally centered, though only RIBUS UNUM is visible, the earlier portions of the legend yielding to Britannia’s shield and the right side of the Machin’s Mills halfpenny exergue. NIA is faintly visible in the lower left reverse. A few little abrasions are seen, blending into the base of the mane and the rim above REA of CAESAREA. The obverse is nearly bisected across the horse’s neck, a crack present on all known examples but the Siboni specimen, a coin that was discovered in 2001 and is now the second finest known. That coin, like many others, shows problematic centering, but its visual appeal is superb.<p>The charisma of this rarest Camel Head has remained even as this variety’s population has increased, bolstered by the discovery of mostly low-grade specimens to the modern population of roughly 17 examples. This piece, discovered in the mid-1980s, has just one prior auction appearance.From the E Pluribus Unum Collection of New Jersey Coppers. Earlier, discovered by Mark Borckardt; Anthony Terranova to R.E. “Ted” Naftzger, Jr.; William O’Donnell Collection; Stack’s sale of the O’Donnell Collection, January 2001, lot 158; William Anton Collection; E Pluribus Unum Collection, via Larry Stack.
