 1773 Virginia halfpenny. Period after Georgivs. N-24.K, B-180. MS-63. 120.8 grains. Vast amounts of original mint color, about half on the obverse and nearly complete on the reverse, remain on slightly reflective surfaces. Decades ago, this is what a "typical" survivor from the Mendes Cohen hoard of Virginia halfpence looked like—but the environment and the marketplace have conspired to change the appearance of the majority of those that survived. There are a few very minor reverse spots, but not an overall layer of flyspecks or distracting stains. A very choice example, ideal for a type coin, and undoubtedly finer than most seen in the market today.
From the F.C.C. Boyd Collection; Stacks' sale of the John J. Ford Jr., Collection Part 7, January 2005, Lot 116. The original Ford lot ticket is included.
The Cohen Hoard—said to have been a keg or more of these halfpence—was discovered in Richmond, Virginia about the time of the Civil War. This was probably an original keg, moved to Richmond when it became Virginia's capital in 1780. Virginia halfpence arrived in Williamsburg—the old capital—in 1774 but their circulation was not authorized until just months before hostilities broke out in the American Revolution. Predictably, not all entered circulation and it seems that the uncirculated remainder of those shipped became the Cohen Hoard.
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