Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents

VF-30 John P. Kennedy • B. Max Mehl, privately.

Col. E. H. R. Green • B. G. Johnson (St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co.) • Homer K. Downing, 11/13/1946 • George H. Clapp • ANS. Obverse illustrated in Noyes.

VF-30 Charles M. Williams • Numismatic Gallery #68, 11/1950: 57 $23 • Numismatic Gallery • Numismatic Gallery #76, 12/1952: 550 $87.50.

VF-25 Sharpness of EF-45 but finely porous and field opposite the face is lightly tooled. Dr. George P. French, 3/21/ 1929 • B. Max Mehl FPL, 1929: 31 $110 • T. James Clarke, 1944 • B. Max Mehl • Dr. William H. Sheldon, 1945 • Sheraton Coin Co. - 1947 AVA (Numismatic Gallery#40): 785 $55 • Harold E. Whiteneck (Sheraton Coin Co.) • C. Douglas Smith • Ray Chatham • Dorothy Paschal s New Netherlands Coin Co. #50, 12/1957: 949 $67.50 • Dorothy Paschal • John A. Schreuder, 4/1970 • Del Bland. Dr. Edward R. Bush • John D. Wright. Obverse illustrated in Morley.

VF-25 James B. Wilson • Thomas L. Elder #21, 10/1908: 978-112 $5.10 • Henry Chapman • Henry Chapman 6/1909: 736 $8.50 • William Sleicher • S. H. Chapman 10/1919: 887 $6.75 unknown • Bowers and Merena 6/1991: 598 $2,750 • Chris Victor-McCawley (CVM) and Larry Briggs Rare Coins • stolen while in the possession of John R. "Bob" Grellman, Jr.

VF-25 K. P. Austin • George Ramont.

VF-25 Sharpness of VF-35 but the fields are covered with very minute abrasions. Dennis R. Heller (Numismatic En-terprises), 3/15/1987 • Richard V. Punchard.

Obverse 22. Very similar to the two preceding. The third lock is doubled at its tip. The lowest lock is broken away nearest the shoulder with the shoulder loop fragmentary, plainest above 9 and the right half of 7. RT is above E and y is above T. In the date, 7 is a little high with a double dentil below.

Reverse BB. Usually weak at the right border as on the preceding.

Die states: I. Perfect obverse die. Reverse as state III above.

II. Obverse was reground to remove clash marks. The shoulder loop is gone except for a small spine above 9. The lowest curl (above 1) and interior of the cap are now incomplete. Reverse gradually crumbles at the rim above A(M) and left. This crumbling is noticeable only when centering permits, and may have developed in the late states of variety 42.

III. Cracked from the crosslet of 4 to the bust point, through the pole, and into the field above. Extremely rare.

Equivalents: Maris 48, ''Frowning Face." Frossard 4.

Elder-Hays 57. McGirk 9E. Ross 36-0. Chapman 32. Sheldon 50. EAC 41. Encyclopedia 1668.

High Rarity 5.

Remarks: Independently discovered by Ebenezer Gilbert in 1896 (called "Hays 57"), and by Dr. Edward Maris, who identified it in his "notes shortly before his death as "M-48. (Charles Steigerwalt, "1794 Cents," The Curio; reprinted, Numismatist, July 1906, p. 244-5; also, Lapp & Silberman, United States Large Cents, pp. 358-59.)

Nobody noticed for many years that Frossard had confused this with our number 47, illustrating it in his 1879 Monograph as his number 4; hence the notation appended to the Table of Equivalents in Hays "Never have seen M-48." This notation was blindly copied in Elder-Hays (1910), despite Elder's description of this variety as Hays 57 alias the "Gilbert variety." The coin Frossard so misidentified was successively in the Merritt, Montanye, Garrett, Adams, Jack H. Robinson, and Dr. Allen Bennett collections. This coin is illustrated above.

Frossard's confusion is not surprising, since the obverses of varieties 38-41, 42, and 43 are quite similar, probably made on the same day or two successive days, and worn examples are not easy to tell apart.

Believed to be part of the June 25 delivery.

An example with the edge reading ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR was reported by Dan Trollan, obviously a major inflationary blunder. (Letter to Mark Borckardt, April 28, 1997.)

Condition Census:

AU-50 George W. Merritt • Ed. Frossard 1/1879: 96 as "Maris No.5" $11.25. 1. F. Montanye. H. G. Sampson 4/1881: 307 as ''Monog. No.4" $6.10 • R. A. Britton • H. G. Sampson 2/1882: 766 as "Monog. 4; Maris 5" $8.25 • unknown • Ed. Frossard #25, 11/1882: 155 as "Maris 5; Monog.4" $25 • E. F. Kuithan • Ed. Frossard #30, 6/1883: 247 as "Maris 5; Monog. 4" $15 • T. Harrison Garrett • Robert Garrett, 1919 • John Work Garrett • Johns Hopkins University, privately 3/1973 • John W. Adams • Bowers and Ruddy Galleries FPL, 1982: 45 $10,000 • Denis W. Loring, 5/7/1983 • Jack H. Robinson • Dr. Allen Bennett. State III. Obverse and reverse illustrated in the 1879 Frossard Monograph and in Chapman. Obverse illustrated in Morley.