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1038

1740 Counterfeit George II Halfpenny, Big Bird Family, Unlisted Variety. 116.8 grains.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:NA
1740 Counterfeit George II Halfpenny, Big Bird Family, Unlisted Variety. 116.8 grains.
1740 Counterfeit George II Halfpenny, Big Bird Family, Unlisted Variety. 116.8 grains.Very Fine overall, the obverse weaker as struck, the reverse strong in that grade. GEO is not visible on the obverse, while the rest of the legends on either side are there, a few reverse letters weaker than their neighbors, but visible. The all-important date is strong and fully on the planchet, 1740 being an extremely rare year for struck counterfeits. The obverse bust is weak and very flatly struck, with apparent die failure at the neck area, while the reverse is bold, the design mostly of deeply-cut but simplistic strokes. Medium brown, two reverse punch marks on the branch arm and just below it show through as minor raised areas on the obverse, otherwise the coin has just the expected light marks from circulation. A very curious piece, with a distinct and unusual look. When the Ringo specimen was sold in the first sale of his counterfeits in January 2008 the cataloguer thought the King appeared bald, while later collectors have thought he was wearing a skullcap. What we all missed is that the letter punches exactly match those used in the Big Bird Family (which was published in the first volume of the counterfeit book series), and the branch design matches two of the then three known reverses – the reason it was not obvious for a decade and a half was that the Big Bird varieties then known all used George III obverses. Other families suffered from this same myopia, and George II obverses have since been found in the Topless Ordinals and Lanky Letters families, and we suspect there will be others found as well. Other than the Ringo coin we have seen just three or four others – the Ringo coin is in a very late reverse die state, with heavy die spalling covering much of the branch and arm, and that may explain the rarity of the variety today. This variety was not present in the sale of counterfeits from the Syd Martin collection earlier this year.
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