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1117

1771 Counterfeit George III Irish Halfpenny, Blacksmith Style, Non-Regal Date, Rock G3-1771-1.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:NA
1771 Counterfeit George III Irish Halfpenny, Blacksmith Style, Non-Regal Date, Rock G3-1771-1.
SOLD
1,000.00USD+ (200.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2024 Jan 20 @ 20:15UTC-6 : CST/MDT
1771 Counterfeit George III Irish Halfpenny, Blacksmith Style, Non-Regal Date, Rock G3-1771-1.Very Good, counterstamped in the obverse with a large RH in a serrated rectangle. Medium brown, the planchet lightly rough in areas, and with a crack from the king’s forehead to the rim. Light marks from circulation, but not bad at all for one of these. Like all the Irish Blacksmiths, this is impossible to grade since they were all sloppily struck, from crudely engraved dies that did not have much detail in them to begin with – these, literally, could have been struck by an Irish blacksmith, though care needs to be made in differentiating them from the Canadian Blacksmith Token series, which has been a problem since Warren Baker included two in his collection of the Canadian Blacksmiths, sold as part of the 1987 Frederick B. Taylor sale. The obverse die here reads GEOION or possibly GEOIGN instead of GEORGIVS, the rest of the legends may be correct, but no surviving example seems to show the full reverse legend. The 1771 date on this one is sharp and fully on the planchet, unlike the example plated in the Rock article in the December 2011 issue of The Colonial Newsletter. At the time of that article there were four known, the count has more than doubled since then, making this the most common of all the Irish Blacksmith varieties – though still rare enough with likely just under a dozen examples extant. In the article it was speculated that this may be a Canadian product, as most of the then-known examples seem to have passed through Warren Baker’s hands. The newly found specimens of this variety have come from both North American and British sources, whereas most of the other extremely rare Irish Blacksmith types have come from England and Ireland, so much more research still needs to be done. This “Irish blacksmith” type should be covered in the next volume of the counterfeit book series. Despite just a small number being known, at least two examples are counterstamped, and a third is either counterstamped or has engraved initials in that style. While not the rarity this once was, it is an exceedingly crude and utterly charming example, the type of coin that today’s collectors chase with gusto.
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