US-Colonial - 1723 Woods Hibernia Farthing

Pictured is a 1723 Hibernia Farthing that I acquired about a month ago.

I believe that this specimen is a Martin 3.2/Bb.1 pursuant to attributions found in The Hibernia Coinage of William Wood (1722-1724), Sydney F. Martin, C4 Publications, (c) 2007.

I like that the specimen retains nice coloring, even though it has some wear and a bit of pitting.

This particular specimen's obverse/reverse die pairing (3.2/Bb.1) is reported by Martin as being an 'R3' on the Sheldon Rarity Scale. (201-500 known specimens presently exist.)

Any comments and thoughts about it are appreciated and welcomed!

Thanks, kindly

CheetahCats

 

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I have one also. I let my daughter take it to school when they were discussing the colonies. I really love colonial coins, but sadly can't afford most. I dream of a chain cent or a Fugio.

 

Captainkirk - I too have a special affinity for Colonials; Pre-Federals as well. I have one Fugio, though it's rather a low grade.

Any chance you could post an image of your Hibernia?

 

There's a decent worn Fugio on the CU forum's BST for around 200$, from an honest seller.
This Wood's Hibernia looks nice to me, and better than mine, which has a dose of the green crud:

 

ksparrow - Thanks for posting yours. It IS a nice specimen too. Do you have the attributions for it? Also... what is the CU forum? It isn't CoinTalk forum, right? I'dl like to check out that Fugio...

 

I will look for it tomorrow, it's late. I'll post it soon.

 

ksparrow - Hope you don't mind... For a bit of fun, I attributed your Hibernia...

• It is a Halfpenny.
• I'm rather confident it is a Martin 3.2 Obverse / Bb.3 Reverse.
• Approx grade pursuant to Martin's diagnostics: "VG-10 / G-6", not netted.
• Sheldon Rarity Scale = 'R4'
• Per spec, mean 7.39 grams, mean 27.2 mm

I've attached the diagnostic images I used to identify and attribute your variety.

(Key to attributions for Halfpenny can be found on pgs. 113-146 of Martin's aforementioned book. Obverse illustration can be found on pg. 153 of same. Reverse illustration can be found on pg. 285 respectively.)

CheetahCats

 

I found my farthing. It's a 1723.
Pics attached.
If you want better pictures, I'll remove it from the 2x2 and use the camera macro.

 

Nice coins Kirk!!

 

That is a nice looking farthing Kirk, indeed. If you could shoot a photo of it outside of it's 2x2, that would be cool!

 

Thanks so much for the attribution, CheetahCats! I'll review the details when I have more time. A lot of info for such a humble coin.

 

You're welcome ksparrow. Believe it or not, it's very easy. Martin, in his book, makes it easy by walking through how to perform the attribution in about 15 steps. It actually took longer to put the red text in PhotoShop than to do the actual attribution!

 

http://numismatics.org/wikiuploads/CNL/Hibernia.pdf

Danforth, B. "Wood's Hibernia Coins Come to America," CNL August 2001.
Above is a link to an informative sample article from the the CNL pertaining to Wood's coinage.

 

Thanks for posting the article. Awesome!

Do you also study & collect Colonials?

 

Yes, I don't focus on any one "series" but, am working on an evenly matched f-vf type set loosely following the PCGS reg. set Early American Coins and Tokens Basic Design Set (1616-1820)
http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/SetComposition.aspx?c=1457

 

Cool. Some of the issues on there are extremely difficult to obtain, while others are much less difficult.

 

Let's see if this link works , I uploaded pics to photobucket.
http://pbckt.com/sB.dRcA

Ok, that link works, the pics have zoom, but you won't need it. Man, this looks worse out of the 2x2. I am guessing it was dug.

 

I was able to see the images via Photobucket.

And indeed, it looks like it had been buried, and after discovery, was cleaned. Regardless, though, it's a nice Farthing

I tried to "clarify" the image using PhotoShop with auto adjustments, but I don't think it changed the image much.

 

So, should I soak it in oil, or just go for the vinegar?
Maybe toilet bowl cleaner?

 

Vinegar will work, but it will take all the original coating off and you have to be careful because it can end up bright red. Remember, vineger is acid so be careful.