Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents

EF-40 Peter Mougey • William H. Woodin • Thomas L. Elder #43, 9/1910: 3 $32.50 • S. H. Chapman • unknown • Homer K. Downing • 1952 ANA (New Netherlands Coin Co. #38): 1616 $250 • Dr. William H. Sheldon. Dorothy Paschal • Dean Oakes, 9/6/1986 • Thomas D. Reynolds. State II.

VF-35 Leonard Kusterer • Benjamin H. Levin, 8/15/ 1983 • Denis W. Loring, 5/1985 • Kenneth M. Goldman • Martin Haber (South Miami Rare Coins) • Superior Galleries 1/1988: 51 $14,850 • unknown. Stack's FPL, Summer 1995: 44 $37,500.

VF-35 J. Ambrose Long • M. H. Bolender #193, 3/1958: 1558 $450 • Charles S. Barkelew • Elvis D. Schooler • Kagin's Numismatic Auctions #340, 1/1986: 5545 $7,700 • Jerry A. Wells. State II.

VF-35 With reverse planchet defects. Thomas Warner • S.H. & H. Chapman 6/1884: 2981 $19.25 • S. H. & H. Chapman • S. H. & H. Chapman 5/1885: 874 $23 • S. H. & H. Chapman • Carl Wurtzbach • Barney Bluestone #76, 4/1943: 1652 $112.50 • Judge Thomas L. Gaskill • New Netherlands Coin Co., privately 11/1956 • Dorothy Paschal. New Netherlands Coin Co. #50, 12/1957: 882 $340

• Corrado Romano (Worthy Coin Co.) • Norman Stack Collection.

VF-35 Stack's 8/1997 • Robert C. Clark.

Obverse 2. Widest LIBERTY of the type. Bases of Rand T are well apart (about the width of the base of T), unlike either of the following. The date is much less wide than on the preceding variety. Both B and 1 almost touch the hair. Treatment of the hair differs from that of obverses 1 and 3, and is nearer but not identical to that of obverse 4.

Reverse B.

Die states. On the discovery coin, a short crack from the rim below 7 crosses 1, and continues more faintly to the rim at the left. The other specimen is too worn to show if the crack is present.

Equivalents: Crosby 2-C McGirk LC, Sheldon NC-1. EAC 3. Encyclopedia 1634.

Rarity 8. Two currently located.

Remarks: The only reasonable explanation for the short life of this obverse is that the crack must have become a heavy break. This variety possibly comprised up to 100 of the March 2, 1793 delivery. Discoverer uncertain: either J. O. Stornay or the Chapman brothers. The Chapmans account in their 1889 auction is ambiguous. (Editor's note: the Ferguson Hames coin (W. Elliot Woodward 10/1880: 185), which the author noted might be another example, was attributed as "Crosby 2-B" and described as "obverse fair, nearly good; reverse poor.")

A possible third specimen, approximately Fair-2, was sold by S. H. & H. Chapman in their June 6, 1906 sale of the Wetmore collection, lot 539. This coin brought $4 and has been untraced since this sale. B. Max Mehl offered something attributed as Crosby 2-C in his 1947 sale of the Neil Collection, lot 1799. This coin was returned, presumably as misdescribed. Occasionally, worn examples of number 5 are misattributed as this variety, though these obverses are not closely similar.

Condition Census:

EF-45 With a very small planchet clip. Sharpness of AU-55 but some nicks and scratches. Purchased in Europe in the 1880s by J. O. Stornay • S. H. & H. Chapman 6/1889: 471 $130 • Harold P. Newlin • W. F. Johnson, 6/1892 • Dr. Thomas Hall, 9/7/1909 • Virgil M. Brand, 2/7 /1941 • B. G. Johnson (St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co.), 3/24/1942 $500 • George H. Clapp • ANS. Obverse illustrated in The United States Coinage of 1793 by Sylvester S. Crosby (1897), in Early American Cents, in Penny Whimsy, and in Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins. Obverse and reverse illustrated in Noyes.

BS-1 Purchased unattributed in 1967 in Columbus, Ohio by Eugene Exman •Dorothy Paschal • Denis W. Loring, 5/1974 • Dr. Robert J. Shalowitz • John W. Adams • Kagin's Numismatic Auctions #305, 1/1975: 475 $3,600 • John W. Adams, 6/22/1977 • Robinson S. Brown, Jr. • Superior Galleries 9/1986: 3 $2,860 • Robinson S. Brown, Jr. • Superior Stamp & Coin Co. 1/1996: 3 $8,250 • Daniel W. Holmes, Jr.

No other examples have been reported.