1774 Machins Mills halfpenny. Vlack 5-74A, W-7760. Rarity-4. GEORGIVS III, Group I. VF-35 (PCGS).116.8 grains. A remarkable second example of the rare early die state with full period after III in obverse legend, with a casual rarity estimate of R-6+/R-7 for the die state. Attractive dark chocolate brown surfaces are evenly worn. The strike is well-centered though with only about one-quarter of the denticles remaining on both sides. A couple of fine hairlines run from reverse center to the N of NIA, the only marks worthy of note. Finding high technical grade Machins Mills halfpence is not difficult, but it is challenging to find them with choice, smooth, visually appealing surfaces like this one. Dies rotated about 20 degrees from coin turn orientation. A short protrusion from the bottom of the globe that is in the die might be the bottom of an errantly punched 7 or other digit in the date, a noteworthy anomaly that we have not noticed previously. This example might lie somewhere at the tail end of the condition census for the variety, competing with the pretty, light brown, less sharp, lightly scratched Ted Craige-Jack Royse coin we sold for $3,055 in 2012 that is now graded PCGS EF-40, the gorgeous piece whose obverse is on the Jack Howes plate, and a raw VF-30 we sold in our January 2010 Americana Sale. Two unquestionably finer examples are the raw AU-50 Ringo coin that has great gloss and eye appeal but a soft central strike, and a high grade example in an advanced NYC Collection.From the E Pluribus Unum Collection.
