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1739 HIGLEY Higley Copper, Broad Axe -- Damage or Tooling -- PCGS Genuine. Fine Details. Friedus 3.2-D, W-8265, R.7. ...
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Description
1739 Higley Copper, Fine Details
Broad Axe Reverse, W-8265
1739 HIGLEY Higley Copper, Broad Axe -- Damage or Tooling --
PCGS Genuine. Fine Details. Friedus 3.2-D, W-8265, R.7. Ex:
Norweb. 127.8 gn, 29.6 mm per its Norweb auction appearance. Samuel
Higley, a medical doctor who graduated from Yale College, operated
a copper mine near Granby, Connecticut. Higley is associated with
various very rare copper issues, the earliest of which is dated
1737. Since Higley died on a ship voyage in May 1737, he could not
have made the present lot, dated 1739. Probably, his son John was
responsible for several Higley varieties, including W-8265.The first Higley issues feature three hammers on the reverse, which refer to smith operations at the copper mine. Later varieties replace the hammers with a single axe and a motto of perseverance: I CUT MY WAY THROUGH. The obverse legends also evolved, from a definitive declaration of value as threepence, to the more conditional VALUE ME AS YOU PLEASE.
The Whitman Colonial Encyclopedia lists W-8265 as URS-4 (five to eight known). We are aware of eight examples:
1. VF or better. Col. E.H.R. Green; Mayflower (5/1957). lot 1628; Herbert M. Oechsner Collection (Stack's, 9/1988), lot 972.
2. VF20 PCGS. Henry Da Costa Gomez Collection, Part Two (Stack's, 6/2004), lot 4004; Long Beach Signature (Heritage, 5/2008), lot 2106, which realized $92,000.
3. Fine Details. Norweb Collection, Part I (Bowers and Merena, 10/1987), lot 1240; Heritage (2/2013), lot 3700, which realized $49,937.50. The present piece.
4. Good. Charles Ira Bushnell; Garrett Collection, Part III (Bowers & Ruddy, 10/1980), lot 1307.
5. Good 4 PCGS. Robert Prann Collection (Numismatic Gallery, 8/1947), lot 579; French's, 1969; John "Jack" Royse Collection; Baltimore Auction (Stack's-Bowers, 11/2012), lot 6017.
6. Good 4 PCGS. Heritage (9/2017), lot 3707, which realized $38,400.
7. Andrew C. Zabriskie Collection (Henry Chapman, 6/1909), lot 41.
8. Connecticut State Library.
This is an important representative of the extremely rare W-8265 variety. The deer and axe types are clear, as is the denomination. The date, CUT MY WAY, and VALUE ME are readable. The dark brown fields are evenly granular and contrast with tan-brown devices. The right obverse has a couple of tiny pits, and close examination reveals a few pinscratches on each side near the borders, from an attempt to remove verdigris. Given the rarity of the variety, any example would be a highlight of an advanced Early American collection. Listed on page 50 of the 2020 Guide Book.
From The Poulos Family Collection.
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