1787 Machin's Mills Halfpenny. Vlack 21-87C, W-7960. Rarity-6+. GEORGIVS

One of the Finest Known Vlack-21-87C Halfpennies 1787 Machin's Mills Halfpenny. Vlack 21-87C, W-7960. Rarity-6+. GEORGIVS III, Group III. VF-30 (PCGS). A memorable offering for advanced specialists in the Machin's Mills series, this is one of the finest confirmed examples of the Vlack 21-87C dies. In-hand appreciation reveals evenly toned deep saddle-brown surfaces and impressively bold detail in most areas. Considerable sharpness remains within the recesses of the effigy, less so for the seated figure on the reverse, borders with hints of denticulation at left obverse and upper reverse. The Roman numeral III and word REX fade toward the smooth border at right obverse, reverse with typical softness involving most of the letters in BRITAN along the left border. The surfaces are a bit rough overall, but more significant in your cataloger's eyes are curious underlying pink and blue colors that suggest a light cleaning ages ago, as well as several scratches, faint and fine along the lower right obverse and reverse borders and atop the shield and bottom of the seated figure, more substantial horizontally through the effigy's cheek into the hair behind. Tiny rim bruises or nicks at 5:30 and 7 o'clock on the obverse, 4 o'clock on the reverse are also noted, as are a few swirls of charcoal color at lower left reverse that represent light, ancient carbon deposits. Vlack 21-87C was discovered by Richard August in 1962, and probably no more than 20 examples have been found since. Most are in low grades, several quite wretched. As with many rare die pairings in the various colonial and early federal era copper series, putting together a solid Condition Census for Vlack 21-87C is a virtually impossible task given variations in overall detail, surface quality and eye appeal between individual examples, and (even more importantly) the differing emphasis that individual collectors place on these various attributes. The EF coin in our November 2019 Baltimore Auction, lot 4064 and Syd Martin's PCGS EF Details coin that sold as lot 6137 in our August 2024 Global Showcase Auction win high marks for overall detail, but are generally excluded from debates that seek to establish the finest knowns due to edge cuts and granularity/scratches, respectively. Less well defined, but still admirably so for an example of this Vlack number, is the Eric P. Newman coin in Heritage's November 2017 sale, lot 15293, although it is impaired and was certified accordingly as VF Details--Obverse Scratched by NGC ahead of the Heritage offering. More widely respected are Syd Martin's primary example that realized $6,600 in our Spring 2023 Auction, lot 1121, as PCGS VF-20, Richard August's coin that graded VF-35 at PCGS and brought $9,000 as lot 1457 in our Spring 2026 Showcase Auction, and the primary plate coin for the variety in the 2024 Howes-Rose-Trudgen references on Machin's Mills coinage, p. 174, that does not appear to have ever sold at public auction. This one is considerably sharper overall than the primary Martin coin, and sharper on the obverse than the referenced August specimen (Dick owned at least two others). We like the surfaces on both of those coins better than what we have described for the present example, although all have their limitations due to granularity, marks, and the like. Regardless, the offered coin clearly belongs in any discussion, and on any list, of the finest known survivors from the Vlack 21-87C dies, and we expect it to bring a strong price commensurate with its significance in this challenging series. PCGS# 469. NGC ID: 2B47. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA.

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