1641-A French Colonies 15 Deniers. Gadoury-22, Ciani-1710, Breen-272. AU-58 (PCGS). 36.7 grains. Reverse aligned slightly clockwise from medal turn. Dies 1-A. A specimen of incredible quality, given the usual condition of survivors of this issue. Boldly struck devices are well centered on attractive glossy gray surfaces. An entirely wholesome piece, with only trivial patches of natural roughness and a few short planchet cracks at the edges, including one centered over 12 oclock on the reverse. A thin curlicue fissure, resembling a lintmark, is seen beneath the fleur-de-lis at the northwest quadrant of the reverse cross. All devices are nicely detailed, with only RA of FRAN at 7 oclock of the obverse periphery showing any notable softness. <p><p>Its hard to imagine there is a finer specimen of this rarity, though we have not seen all of them. Jeff Rock has estimated a total population of about 10 pieces (noting that this issue appears rarer than a 1670-A 15 sols). This population includes three in the Bank of Canada. None are in the ANS Collection, and none were in the Ford Collection. The example in our January 1998 sale reappeared in the Partrick Collection liquidation. The nice example in our (Bowers and Merenas) July 1997 sale (lot 1034), graded EF, has not been traced, and while we expected this to be the Breen plate coin (ex Hinderling, Terranova), that appears to be a different but perhaps similar quality specimen. Breen knew of four specimens: the plate coin, two said to be in a European museum, and another with provenance to a 1973 hoard. None of these square with the ones we record, but there may be some duplication among those four, the three in Ottawa, the six in the Martin Collection, and the two examples offered in American auctions in the last 30 years (Partrick, ex Stacks 1998, and the 1997 Bowers and Merena coin). Though demand in North America has been greater than on the Continent for at least a few generations, there are probably some still in France, but we would be hard-pressed to locate as many as 20 examples. It seems safe to say that a majority of those in private hands are in the present sale. PCGS# 829560. PCGS Population: 1, none finer. The four coins graded by PCGS are all in the Syd Martin Collection. From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Anthony Terranova Collection; John Agre and Dave Wnuck (Coin Rarities Online), via Mike Wierzba, January 2008.
