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Sale 53
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Lot 63
1796 Myddelton Pattern Halfpenny in Copper Breen-1074 Rarity-7. PCGS graded Proof 64 Red & Brown. Frosty chocolate and steel with 15-20% of the original mint color remaining. The surfaces are nearly flawless and offer outstanding eye appeal. No spots or stains, the only mark being a faint hairline scratch in the field below SETTLEMENT. Sharply struck and very attractive, although the fields do not have the reflectivity you expect for a proof strike. Nonetheless, these are all considered to be proofs, perhaps because they were samples made for the client rather than pieces actually struck for commerce. The client was Philip Parry Price Myddelton, an Englishman with a large tract of land in Kentucky. He ordered these halfpenny samples for a coinage he expected would be needed for the colonists he was encouraging to emigrate to his lands in Kentucky. (He also had pieces struck in silver from these same dies, possibly as pattern florins. The silver version is more common than the ones struck in copper.) The devices he had placed on these samples were admittedly beautiful but they brought out the ire of the British government. The reverse was especially egregious in this regard. It depicts Britannia with her head down, her spear pointed to the ground (a symbol of defeat), and the scales of Justice and the fasces bundle on the ground where a Liberty Cap has sprung up. Hindsight suggests his coinage designs went too far and amounted to sticking his thumb into the eye of the British Government. Myddelton's ambitious project was quickly halted and he was thrown into jail. We, however, are left with Kentucky and these small, extremely rare pieces of history to help us recall Myddelton's ambitious project. Pop 2; none finer at either service.
Estimated Value $17,000 - 20,000.
The Mark Gordon Collection.
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| Realized $16,100 |
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