1787 New Jersey Copper. Maris 52-i, W-5280. Rarity-3. Outlined Shield, No Sprig Above Plow. EF-40 (PCGS). 143.7 grains. 27.9 mm. Well let Syd catalog this one and crib directly from his inventory database, both to give bidders a sense of Syds insight and because his description is excellently accurate:<p><p>"Ex Ford 1:175; Tom Elders 45s Sale, 18Nov1910:599; Ryder; F.C.C. Boyd Estate. Both the obv and rev of this piece are a very nice even rich olive brown color. Surfaces uniformly microgranular on both sides but because they are uniformly so, the appearance is strong and the devices stand out against them to full effect. Decent central sharpness for the grade even though the center of 52-i often comes soft with most of the detail in the horses mane still visible and the horizontal shield lines bold, the tops of the vertical ones softer as struck. Well struck and centered with a nearly full border of denticles on the reverse and just those at the very base of the obverse indistinct. Not quite as nice as the ODonnell piece, graded just about the same, however."<p><p>If Syd hadnt been a world-class engineering mind and innovator in the world of defense and intelligence technology, he could have been a very good numismatic cataloger.<p><p>The dies are perfect, without the later break above V of NOVA, Die State 1.<p><p>The primary E Pluribus Unum coin, graded PCGS AU-53, was a new addition to the Condition Census and probably deserves a high ranking therein. The published SHI Census is led by the Maris-Garrett coin at AU-, followed by six EF pieces (including this one) that may represent just five discrete coins. The ODonnell coin, mentioned in Syds description, is ranked fifth and was sold as NGC AU-50 in March 2021. It was as nice (or nicer) than other recently offered examples of this variety graded NGC AU-55 and PCGS AU-55 in Heritages sales of May 2022 and January 2022, respectively. PCGS# 766270. From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from Thomas Elders 45th sale of November 18, 1910, Lot 599; F.C.C. Boyd Collection; Boyd Estate to John J. Ford, Jr.; our (Stacks) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection Part I, October 2003, lot 175; Lawrence R. Stack Collection, November 2006.
