1760 Voce Populi Halfpenny. Nelson-3, Zelinka 7-E, W-13930. VOOE. MS-62 BN (PCGS).102.0 grains. A beautiful and frosty example of this popular variety. Lustrous light brown with smooth, glossy surfaces. Well centered on the obverse, aligned to 10:30 on the reverse, with a broad frame of denticles showing its greatest thickness at 4:30. The reverse rim is a bit naturally crude, but no noteworthy flaws are seen otherwise. A trivial lamination is seen above the space between OO of VOOE. The VOOE break is complete and closed here. This is not a variety that usually comes nice, and this specimen is almost certainly high in the Condition Census. The best we’ve sold in recent years was in our November 2012 Ted Craige sale as lot 6215, offered raw as an AU-50 and not as choice as this coin in terms of surface quality. This appears to be at least equal, likely better, than the example in the 1995 C4 (John Griffee) sale, lot 251. The Nelson coin is a part of the permanent collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Suffice it to say that there is no good condition census of Voce Populis, but this appears to be the best one to come to the market in at least 30 years.<p><p>From the E Pluribus Unum Collection.
