Lot 32
1795 C-5b R4 Plain Edge without Pole on Thick Planchet VG7. Struck over a Spoiled Lettered Edge Large Cent. Very slightly sharper but the planchet is not perfectly smooth and there are some fine hairline scratches in the toning on both sides, mostly on the obverse. The most-notable defects are some very fine parallel planchet striations on the obverse, as struck. Partly glossy steel brown and chocolate with darker chocolate brown toning in protected areas. The date is weak but readable and the legends are nearly complete. Struck on an off center large cent with a lettered edge (which is exceptionally rare). The half cent planchet was cut in a manner to minimize the appearance of the off center large cent, and only the dentils of the large cent show on the obverse of the half cent. In so doing, much of the cent edge was included on the half cent planchet and E HUNDRE from the edge lettering is clearly visible. The edge lettering is of the large style found on the cents of 1794 Sheldon-71 and 1795 Sheldon-76a, plus several others. An unintended consequence of cutting the half cent planchet with part of the cent edge included is that the half cent is oval-shaped rather than round. It appears that mint workers purposely cut these half cent planchets in a manner to minimize the amount of large cent design included on the smaller planchet, and that makes sense since you could only get a single half cent planchet out of each spoiled large cent. But sometimes they went a bit too far to escape the cent design (as on this piece). These errors tell us a lot about how things were done (and screwed up) in the early days of our mint. Weight a hefty 129.5 grains. Davy #95.5b.8.
Estimated Value $500-UP.
Ex Don Valenziano 7/1/92.
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| Realized $2,875 |
