 1722 Wood's Hibernia Halfpenny. Rocks on Right. Nelson 1. ''Pattern.'' Gem Uncirculated. Prooflike. 115.6 gns. Essentially a gem Uncirculated example with bright prooflike fields. The obverse and reverse are mostly a rich brown in color. There is blazing nearly unfaded original mint red around the letters in the obverse inscription, in places on George I's head and hair, across Hibernia's seated figure from her waist down, the harp and date, and in places in the rocks to her right and around the letters of HIBERNIAE at the upper left. Curiously, there are also traces of what appears to be gilding (probably really imperfectly mixed alloy) around the reverse periphery. Extremely sharply struck in the centers, all of George's hair strands are individually outlined and Hibernia's features are quite clear and bold including the very thin and faint ribbons which hang from the wreath around her head. Accompanied by F.C.C. Boyd's collector's ticket describing this coin as a full ''Proof'' and Walter Breen's handwritten collector's envelope simply describing the type. The finest seen, finer than Norweb:3423 (Very Fine), Norweb:3424 (Fine), Garrett:1265 (Very Fine), Robison:38 (Extremely Fine), Roper:98 (Very Fine), Princeton:695 (Extremely Fine), Park:33 (Extremely Fine), Pine Tree May, 1976 sale:649 (Very Fine); Stack's December, 1987 sale:254 (Extremely Fine), Glendinings' June, 1957 sale:668 ex Lockett (Very Good), and the one in the next lot. Rare: the cataloguer has records of only 12 of these. Called proof by Chapman and Boyd. Breen records a report of two in ''proof'' in the Royal Irish Academy.
Ex Henry Chapman in 1910; F.C.C. Boyd Estate.
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