1787 Connecticut Copper. Two Headed Miller Obverse 33.7—Flipover Double Strike. Draped Bust Left. Very Fine, graffiti.136.2 grains. A purposefully made whimsy piece from the Company for Coining Coppers in New Haven, an undoubtedly authentic (and guaranteed as such) production from 1787. The only way this coin could have been struck is for a planchet to have been coined by impressing the obverse against a blank reverse die (or, alternatively, by placing two planchets in the coining chamber at once, one of which would have ended up being a uniface obverse), then flipped over and struck again with either a foreign body (like a thick piece of leather) or another planchet against the already-struck side while the formerly blank side was impressed with the obverse die. On this coin, all the hallmarks of such a coin are present: the side without the graffiti was struck first and now appears flattened, a bit wavy, and smushed. The other side, with the 18th century graffito “N.P.” knife carved into it at center, is far crisper and clearly did not undergo the same process as the opposite side. Both sides are nice light brown, smooth and relatively problem free, but for a few additional cuts or digs in the lower left of the graffitied side. It appears a pressman in New Haven made himself a souvenir, rather like some of the Vermont coppers that have survived as double obverses today.From the E Pluribus Unum Collection. Earlier from our (Bowers and Ruddy’s) 1981 ANA sale of the William R. Sieck Collection, July 1981, lot 369.
