1788 Massachusetts Half Cent. Ryder 1-A, W-6000. Rarity-4+. MS-63 BN (PCGS). 70.4 grains. An outstanding and well pedigreed example of this challenging variety, by far the scarcer of the two 1788 Massachusetts half cent varieties. Seldom seen in Uncirculated condition, this is one of just two examples graded Mint State that we have sold in the last several decades, the other being the Schonwalter-Twin Leaf coin. This piece has pleasantly smooth surfaces devoid of marks and retains a frosty mint character to both sides. Color is an attractive and even shade of medium-brown. Some slightly granular natural planchet texture is noted on the tunic and elsewhere in the fields, mostly out of the way toward the borders. An impressive, desirable piece with a century old provenance, significant also for the fact that the reverse of this exact coin was plated to illustrate 1788 reverse A in Ryders 1920 ANS monograph on the series. PCGS# 688347. From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from S.H. & H. Chapmans sale of the Ralph R. Barker Collection, July 1904, lot 358; Hillyer Ryder; F.C.C. Boyd; John J. Ford, Jr.; our (Stacks) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection Part V, October 2004, lot 108; Jon Hanson; Donald G. Partrick; Heritages sale of the Partrick Collection, January 2015, lot 5686.