I his 'Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins' Q. David Bowers makes the point that it is not easy to grade U.S colonial and post colonial coins. And, he is entirely correct. The equipment, materials and circumstance under which many of the coin were struck were of course quite rudimentary. Weak strikes, poor planchets and otherwise defective planchets abound. A good example of how difficult it is to grade these properly is this Republic of Vermont copper, dated 1788. I have it attributed as variety RR-14. I am, however, unable to grade it properly. It has good surfaces and an even planchet with no major defects. The problem is the strike seems to be uneven and weak in parts while strong in others. The overall appearance is (to me at least) that of a coin that apparently barely circulated. Long story short, I just do not have the experience with colonials to assign a grade. Let us see what those of you with more experience in this area of U.S coinage have to say. Thank you for your opinions!
Sorry I don't have time to attribute it but someone here will. Anyway, Bowers is correct. In reality your coin is much higher condition than most will say. That does not matter a whole lot. Just as with flat struck Buffalo nickels that only bring the price they "look" not the price of their actual condition of preservation. Typically, this coin never had much detail when new. IMO, most will call it VG when IMO it is closer to VF. The corrosion on this coin is not significant to mention.
I have collected colonials for well over thirty years, and I just don't grade them. I look at surfaces, color detail and overall eye appeal but don't grade them. Yours is a nice one though!
Excuse my ignorance on this, but how are you able to identify the coin as a 1788? The date mark says 1787 and I know back then that was the "origin" date of the coin. Thanks in advance for any knowledge you can glean
Well don't grade it. Nevertheless, why not share your opinion about this coin's color, surfaces, etc.? It may be very helpful to the OP.
EASY, this variety was struck in February 1788 using dies from the previous year! The OP and I just assumed everyone knew about this! * Only kidding, good "tongue-in-cheek" catch.
Lovely coin Eduard! I believe I see a decent amount of wear on both the obverse and reverse, although I agree that in Mint State there was probably not much detail present. I would give this a grade in between vf and ef, tending towards vf but hesitate to grade from photos alone without seeing it in hand. I think this falls into the realm of why grade the coin. For someone building a type set, 'The Grade' to the extant such a thing exists, will probably not matter much because the detail is not, and likely was never, there. So while technically it's xf, people building a type set will not want to pay xf money for it. For those collecting these by variety, they will see the weak strike and understand it's likely a function of the dies, and will compare this example to other examples of that variety. So regardless of the grade given, it will be purchased in relation to other weakly struck examples. Last point of my ramble, but a simple grade just does not begin to describe the quality of your coin. Surface preservation and color start to become very important, possible more important that grade, and your coin is a great example. Congrats!
I took your advice (thanks to all of you, and specially beef1020) and tried to familiarize myself with the striking characteristics of this issue, Ryder-14. Fortunately, Heritage Archives has a number of examples of the type. Here is an AU50, an EF45, and an VF35. From top to bottom: Ryder-14, AU50 Ryder 14, EF45 Ryder 14, VF35 Source: Heritage Archives What I have concluded is that my coin is generally struck more weakly than comparable examples, specially the obverse. It compensates with a very appealing planchet devoid of any faults and the peripheral devices (legends) show very little wear as of a barely circulated coin. Taking ll of this together I am (tentatively) assigning my example the grade of VF35 to EF40.
I agree with VF-35; yet the surfaces are very nice and I'll bet Heritage could get it into an XF-40 slab with no trouble.
I see a coin that would slide into an XF40 holder. The mottos are very sharp - mushy mottos are an indicator of a lower grade. I think the reverse detail lacking is due to strike, not wear. Well centered, nice flan. Good piece!
