Lot 41
(c.1792-94) Kentucky Cent. Lettered edge, "LANCASTER". PCGS graded MS-64 Red. A blazing mint red beauty with orange-gold color. A Kentucky Token that has satin luster and minimal carbon! The obverse legend, UNANIMITY IS THE STRENGTH OF SOCIETY, is a "pep talk for the new nation," according to Breen, "while the Great Seal's motto E PLURIBUS UNUM, 'Out of many, one,' refers to the stable configuration of states into one union. Both inscriptions suggest that the makers intended a nationwide circulation, not a local Kentucky destination; outside Lexington, the new state was a wilderness where coins would have been about as useful as at the North Pole.
"On the scroll (a petition?) is OUR CAUSE IS JUST, which is more problematical. If this refers to the former British colonies in America, it is strangely late; if it refers to Kentucky, the words allude to settlers' struggles ever since 1783 to secede from Virginia and join the Union as a separate state--again pointing to a date early in 1792, when the federal congress was considering admission of Kentucky as the fifteenth state." Pop 34; 8 finer in 65 RD (PCGS # 625) .
Estimated Value $2,500 - 2,700.
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| Realized $1,955 |
