1772 Machins Mills Halfpenny. Vlack 5-72A, W-7710. Rarity-6. GEORGIVS III, Group I. VF-20 (PCGS).115.4 grains. Well centered on a comfortable flan, this dark brown, relatively smooth coin is head and shoulders above the average example of this variety encountered. Many display similar detail in the design motifs, but have far inferior surfaces with scratches, corrosion or other impairments. The <em>Whitman Encyclopedia</em> <em>of Colonial and Early American Coins</em> reports a condition census that ranges from VF-30 to AU, so this specimen likely misses the census, though we must say that we feel that a grade of VF-25 or even VF-30 is more appropriate for this coin. Struck from the middle die state of the reverse, a fingerlike die break reaching upwards into the field from Britannias branch hand, a break that makes for easy identification of the die pairing and that lengthens and thickens on even later states. Amusingly enough, Dick Doty, late curator of the National Numismatic Collection, had once used an example of 5-72A in this die state from the Collection to illustrate his class on British coinage at the ANA Summer Seminar, not realizing it was a Machins Mills halfpenny and not a genuine product of the Tower Mint! Finer than Ringos VF-25 and Newmans VF Details example. The finest must be the Breen plate coin that was also used to illustrate reverse 72A on the Jack Howes plate.From the E Pluribus Unum Collection.
