1787 New Jersey Copper. Maris 38-Z, W-5170. Rarity-3. Small Head, Outlined Shield. VF-25 (PCGS).161.0 grains. Plated on page 344 of the reference by Siboni, Howes and Ish, who note “only one example of DS3 [is] known.” Though Matthew Adams Stickney likely collected this coin before 1854, it was not seen or documented until 1907, when Henry Chapman described it as “reverse die broken and badly sunken. The only example I have seen in which the die was so defaced.” Over a century later, Mr. Chapman should take solace in the fact that none of us has ever seen another example like this either. <p>The surfaces are glossy dark chocolate brown, the devices a bit lighter and showing pleasant contrast. Both sides are a bit granular, but the reverse is more even and appealing. Both sides are aligned to the left and show some denticles at the right. The shield is exceptionally sharp. The reverse die break is immense and impressive, buckled horizontally across the top of the shield from PL of PLURIBUS to NU of UNUM. A very crisp die crack stretches across the top border of the shield, from rim to rim via the middle of the L in PLURIBUS and the center of the first U of UNUM. The field left of the shield is swollen and buckled. The whole effect makes for one of the most eye-catching die states in the entire New Jersey series. This coin brought $42.50 in the 1955 Spiro sale, where it was described as “the famous broken die from Stickney. Not in Maris. Unique.” This piece brought $5 more than Spiro’s Maris Plate 81-ii, which brought $50,400 in our November 2019 E Pluribus Unum sale. This coin last appeared in the 1991 Frontenac sale, where it was described as “low condition census.”From the E Pluribus Unum Collection of New Jersey Coppers. Earlier from Henry Chapman’s sale of the Matthew A. Stickney Collection, June 1907, lot 294; Jacob Spiro Collection; Hans M.F. Schulman’s sale of the Jacob N. Spiro Collection, March 1955, lot 1522; F.C.C. Boyd Collection; our (Bowers and Merena’s) Frontenac sale, November 1991, lot 166.
