LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 February Long Beach Signature Coin #460  / 

2010

1793 1C Wreath, Vine and Bars Edge. AU50 PCGS.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:15,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1793 1C Wreath, Vine and Bars Edge. AU50 PCGS.
<B>1793 1C Wreath, Vine and Bars Edge. AU50 PCGS. S-11a, B-16a, High R.4.</B></I> <B>Noyes VF30; tied for CC-8. Photo #59257. Our EAC Grade VF30.<BR><BR>Equivalents.</B></I> Crosby-Levick 9H; Frossard 9; Crosby 11-J; McGirk 2-K; EAC 16a; <I>Encyclopedia</B></I> 1644; PCGS #1347.<BR><B><BR>Variety.</B></I> Left leaf is vertical, others lean right. Fraction is right of center below the bow. The obverse appears on S-11a, S-11b, and S-11c. The reverse appears on S-11a, S-11b, and S-11c. Vine and Bars Edge. Because this is the only die marriage with Lettered Edge examples, S-11 is placed last in the emission sequence of Wreath cents.<BR><B><BR>Surfaces. </B></I>Pleasing light brown surfaces with some diagonal linear planchet flaws at the lower reverse. A few faint hairlines on each side suggest that this piece may have been cleaned at one time in its past. A small rim bruise is noted below the right ribbon end. In <I>Early American Cents</B></I>, Sheldon commented: "Many defective planchets were used for the 11-J [Sheldon-11] cents, particularly for those with the Vine and Bars Edge. The defects often look like die breaks, and it is common to hear of 11-J cents with various die breaks, but all such ‘breaks' that I have seen have turned out to be planchet defects."<BR><BR><B>Die State I. </B></I>An early die state without visible clash marks. Although later states exist, most Vine and Bars Edge coins from these dies are in this die state.<BR><BR><B>Appearances.</B></I> The obverse and reverse are illustrated in Noyes (2006).<BR><BR><B>Census.</B></I> Although two pieces are considered Mint State, the next best grades just XF45, per Del Bland and Bill Noyes. The Census continues to drop quickly, with only about 10 pieces ranked VF30 or finer. Noyes recorded this example in his Census, but it is absent from the Bland Census, still waiting to be discovered when that Census was published.<BR><BR><B>Commentary.</B></I> This obverse and reverse die combination is known for both Lettered Edge and Vine and Bars Edge coins. Die states are similar for both edge types, indicating that planchets of both edge types were intermixed before the coins were struck.<BR><BR>The S.S. Crosby article that accompanies the famous Levick Plate in the April 1869 issue of <I>American Journal of Numismatics</B></I> describes all three edge varieties of Sheldon-11: "This type is sometimes found with edge of vine and milling, but oftener lettered ONE HUNDRED FOR A DOLLAR, in letters sometimes so large as to cover fully three-quarters of the thickness of the coin; at others not much more than half its thickness; and followed, on some, by two short leaf-like dashes, on others by only one."<BR><BR><B> </B></I>Jean Castaing was a 17th-century French engineer who invented a machine to place edge lettering or other designs on individual planchets. His device was simply a bench that had two edge dies, each containing part of the design. One die was fixed to the bench while the other die was moved by a crank and gears. The planchet is placed between the two edge dies, and the crank moved half a turn, resulting in a complete transfer of the design from the edge dies to the planchet. A detailed description of the history and operation of the Castaing machine appears in "Origins of Edge Lettering on Early American Copper Coinage," by George W. Ewing, Jr. in the <I>1984 ANS Coinage of the Americas Conference.</B></I> In <I>The Art and Craft of Coin Making, </B></I>Denis Cooper notes that recorded details of the Castaing machine appeared circa 1680.<BR><BR>A recently published history of the Mint incorrectly attributes the invention of the lettering machine to Jacob Perkins of Newburyport, Massachusetts. In <I>Henry Voigt and Others Involved in America's Early Coinage</B></I>, Karl Moulton refers to a newspaper article in the July 21, 1792, issue of the <I>Columbian Centennial,</B></I> published in Boston. Moulton quotes a passage from the article that states that one of the machines Perkins brought to Philadelphia was used "for milling or lettering the edge." Moulton continued: "It is because of Perkins' innovative equipment that we have such items as the Vine and Bars 1793 large cents."<BR><BR><B>Provenance.</B></I> <I>Thomas D. Reynolds (12/2002)</B></I>.<BR><BR><B>Personality.</B></I> <B>Tristram Dalton</B></I> served as the first Mint treasurer. A Massachusetts senator, Dalton was born in Newburyport on May 28, 1738. He was educated at Harvard, graduating in 1755. Although he studied law and was admitted to the bar, Dalton pursued other business interests until the start of his political career that lasted from 1782 to 1791. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the state Senate, and the United States Senate. He was also elected to the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1784, but did not attend. Appointed by Washington to his post as Mint treasurer in May 1792, Dalton served until resigning on April 23, 1794. Dalton invested in Washington, D.C., real estate, but his agent's mismanagement of those investments reduced him to poverty. He held the post of surveyor of the Port of Boston from November 1814 until his death there on May 30, 1817.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coins & Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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