1777 Circulating Counterfeit Halfpenny. Vlack 10-77A, W-8125. Rarity-7. Machins Mills Related. Fine-12 (PCGS).100.1 grains. Microporous tan and light brown surfaces with some minor old scratches on each side but no seriously disfiguring marks. Quite sharp and pleasing as far as this issue comes, with excellent definition to the central motifs, a full bold date, and a majority of the legends visible. One of the rarest counterfeits included on Bob Vlacks plates, though unlinked to the Machins Mills series that Vlack first organized. Breen termed this variety "provenance uncertain, though conceded to be American." In 1983, Eric Newman wrote to Gary Trudgen that he did not own a Vlack 10-77A, but did "have five other different 1777 British half pence." Mike Ringo was able to find one of these, presumably in the wild. Worn and holed as it is, it brought $2,760 over a decade ago in our (Stacks) 2008 Americana sale. The Warren Baker specimen, easily the most interesting example to have survived, is overstruck on a brockage and has been famous since its appearance in the 1987 Frederick Taylor sale. Acquired by Doug Robins, it was unceremoniously dispatched in a group lot sold by another auction house that missed its significance entirely; the winning bidder understood it much better. We have had the surprising opportunity to handle three different specimens of this rarity in just the last three years. This piece is on par with the best of them, a PCGS VF-30 that was sharper but with similar overall appeal, that realized $7,200 in our November 2020 E Pluribus Unum sale.PCGS# 531320.From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Mike Wierzba, November 2015.
