Walter Breen
EF-45 Sharpness of AU-55 but pits and scratches, cleaned and recolored. George F. Seavey • William H. Strobridge, 1873: 206 • Lorin G. Parmelee, privately • John P. Lyman • S. H. Chapman 11/1913: 389 $280 • Carl Wurtzbach, 1919 • Virgil M. Brand • B. G. Johnson (St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co.), 12/1/1943 • James G. Macallister • J. C. Morgenthau & Co. #454, 1/1944: 415 $355 • George H. Clapp • ANS. State I. Obverse and reverse illustrated in the 1914 ANS Exhibition Catalogue.
EF-45 Mortimer Livingston Mackenzie • Edward Cogan 6/1869: 625 $32.50 • Benjamin Betts • Dr. Augustine Shurtleff, 2/27/1901 • Museum of Fine Arts (Boston). 1976 ANA (Stack's): 219 $9,500 • New England Rare Coin Galleries • Bowers and Ruddy Galleries FPL #32, 1979 $24,500 • unknown • John Love • Martin Paul (The Rarities Group) • Anthony Terranova, 8/21/1990 • Alan Weinberg. State II. Obverse illustrated on the Crosby-Levick Plate.
EF-45 Peter Mougey • William H. Woodin • Thomas L. Elder #43, 9/1910: 2 $50 • Henry Chapman.
EF-40 Clarence S. Bement, privately • Henry Chapman, privately 1/24/1936 $150 • Judge Thomas L. Gaskill • New Netherlands Coin Co., privately 11/1956 • Dorothy Paschal, 8/1975 • Denis W. Loring, 9/1975 • Kenneth M. Goldman, 3/1987 • Martin Haber (South Miami Rare Coins) • Caesar Julian • Heritage Rare Coin Galleries, 8/10/1996 • Dennis Mendelson, 12/1996 • Denis W. Loring.
EF-40 Charles M. Williams • Numismatic Gallery #68, 11/1950: 5 $210 • Harold Bareford, 9/13/1985 • Herman Halpern • Stack's 3/1988: 4 $19,800 • David Bloom • Dennis Irving Long • Bowers and Merena 1/1990: 14 $34,100 • Dr. Eugene Sherman, 12/1996 • John B. MacDonald. State III.
EF-40 Sharpness of AU-55 but burnished in right obverse field. Geo. W. Rice • St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co. #16,4/ 1906: 937 $75 • Virgil M. Brand • New Netherlands Coin Co. • New Netherlands Coin Co. #50, 12/1957: 886 $975 • Dr. James O. Sloss, 9/1958 • R. E. Naftzger, Jr. • A. Kosoff 10/1959: 4 $1,400 • Philip E. Benedetti (Pickwick Stamp & Coin Co.) offered in Numismatic Scrapbook, 3/ 1961, at $2,500 • Empire Coin Co., FPL #16, 1962 $3,850 • 1964 ANA (Federal Brand Enterprises): 32 $3,225 • John L. Roper, 2nd • Stack's 12/1983: 444 $12,650. State II.
EF-40 Daniel F. Howorth • Lyman H. Low #152, 9/ 1910: 171 $81 • unknown • Charles R. Mathewson, 1955 • Copley Coin Co. • Dr. William H. Sheldon • Dorothy Paschal • New Netherlands Coin Co. #50, 12/1957: 887 $480 • ''MR.'' State II.
Less than a week after the coins were delivered, The Mail, or Claypoole's Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia, March 18), ran the following paragraph, gleefully copied in the Boston Argus and other East Coast newspapers:
The American Cents (says a letter from Newark) do not answer our expectations. The chain on the reverse is but a bad omen for liberty, and Liberty herself appears to be in a fright. May she not justly cry out in the words of the Apostle, "Alexander the coppersmith hath done me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works!"
Everyone knew that this barb was aimed at Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, the cabinet officer commonly believed to be in charge of the Mint. (The actual agency was the State Department under Thomas Jefferson.) Nevertheless, this may have been Mint Director Rittenhouse's cue to order a change in design.
A change in the reverse would have been necessary anyway, as soon as the 16th state joined the Union. Rittenhouse surely realized that the engraver could not go on indefinitely adding new links for new states.