The November 2012 Baltimore Auction - US and World Lots - Live and Internet Only Sessions

Pre-Bidding Ends: 11/16/2012 2:00:00 PM PST
Live Floor and Internet Bidding Begins: 11/16/2012 3:00:00 PM PST

Lot #6094. 1790 Standish Barry Threepence. W-8510. VF Details--Graffiti (PCGS).

Historic 1790 Standish Barry Threepence

Description: 13.3 grains. Medal turn. Beautiful medium gray with the fine blue undertones and gold highlights of a pleasing original patina. Perfectly centered, with full legends and borders, just the merest weakness at the H of THREE on the reverse. Some very faint old pin scratches are seen on the obverse portrait of Mayor James Calhoun, more notably criss-cross scratch off Calhoun's nose in the left obverse field. A charming example, with superb eye appeal and far above average sharpness. There are only a few truly nice Standish Barry pieces, including the Brand-Ford gem and a couple other nice coins in the EF/AU range. Unsurprisingly, the two best collections formed in Baltimore (Garrett and Eliasberg) both included high grade examples. The population is mostly weighted towards lower grade or damaged pieces. This one is far finer than the specimens included in the Steinberg and Oechsner sales, for example, and others could be mentioned. The Ford catalog noted "the absolute rarity of these is not yet established but there may be as few as 15 known." Even if the total population is somewhat higher than this, many are impounded: American Numismatic Society, Maryland Historical Society, Smithsonian Institution, among others. The MdHS duplicate was deaccessioned and sold in our Stack's 74th Anniversary sale of November 2009, bringing $43,125 in a PCGS VF-30 holder; we have not sold one since. An example sold by Heritage in 2008 had a large plugged hole yet still brought $8,050. This pleasing example, once a part of the collection belonging to Virgil Brand's grandnephew, is far more pleasing than most offered publicly since this was last sold in 1990.

PCGS# 609.

From the John "Jack" Royse Collection. Purchased privately from Stack's. Earlier from our (Bowers and Merena's) sale of the Chris Schenkel Collection, November 1990, lot 4152, consigned as part of the Michael Brand Zeddies Collection.


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