1783 John Chalmers Shilling. W-1790, Breen-1012. Rarity-4. Birds, Long Worm. EF-40 (PCGS).An old friend, cataloged two decades ago in the inaugural American Numismatic Rarities sale as follows:<p><p>"Light silver gray shows pleasing undertones of pale blue and subtle gold. Quite simply, a lovely example of this Annapolis, Maryland emission - a centered strike, good eye appeal, only faint handling marks. A small area of weakness is present at the base of the 3 in the date and at the opposite location at the reverse cluster, but the all-important centers are extremely bold for the grade on both sides. After having intensely studied the Chalmers issues for the last several months, your cataloguer (JK) is well aware of just how ugly these often are and just how scarce the Long Worm variety is in comparison to its Short Worm counterpart - at least five times scarcer and certainly more so in grades better than this. Indeed, the Long Worm is a significant rarity over EF grade, and even finer ones rarely have such sharp clasped hands on the reverse. At present, the market recognizes no premium value for this die variety, a testament to the fact that most collectors are satisfied with but one Chalmers shilling. This market lethargy and the superb quality of this coin spells a serious opportunity for bidders. A significant offering of this rarity<p><p>"A study of the Chalmers silver issues of 1783 is complete, having been presented at the most recent ANS Coinage of the Americas Conference, and awaits future publication. Chalmers, a silversmith, patriot, and Annapolis mover-and-shaker, went broke soon after his coinage was produced, became an itinerant preacher, freed his slaves, and became an outspoken advocate for the abolition of slavery. He also became a drunk and was thrown out of the Methodist Church for certain indiscretions in 1813. The Long Worm variety is best recognized by the hedge running from N to I (as opposed to N to N for the short worm) and the decoration between ONE and SHILLING which contains no internal cross. It appears that the Long Worm shilling was struck after the Short Worms, which share a common reverse."<p><p>This coin is still lovely (and still graded EF-40 by PCGS, which Syd thought was conservative), with fine toning and great eye appeal. The ANS COAC paper on Chalmers never saw publication.PCGS# 595.From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from our (American Numismatic Rarities) sale of July 2003, lot 74.
