 Undated St. Patrick's Farthing. Gold. About Uncirculated, or thereabouts. 184.9 gns. No nimbus. FLOREAT REX obverse. QVIESCAT PLEBS reverse. Very pleasing deep yellow gold in color with the toning around the peripheries on both sides that gold takes on over time. Fairly well centered on both sides, the obverse a little off but the reverse about perfectly centered. Very sharp, all the detail in King David's figure on the obverse and St. Patrick's on the reverse is clear and bold (save the face, which is softer here than usually seen even on VF coppers). Reverse rim dent above P, gouge in right field through the top of the cathedral engaging the saint's robe at left, light haymarks in right obverse field. Unique, with no other rumored, hinted at, or ever alluded to in any literature anytime anywhere at all ever. Described in part by Mr. Ford in 1976 as ''Variety totally without punctuation in either obverse or reverse legends. Struck upon a thick, constricted flan; edge reeded (as on silver examples), here relatively coarse and quite pronounced...Scott (Taxay) C332, where this identical piece is called 'Unique'; Dowle & Finn 345. Remarkably clean-appearing, despite fairly deep obverse scratch(es?) extending from St. Patrick's vestment to the upper part of the church, plus a few other inconsequential field handling marks. Boldly and fully struck up, making this highly important rarity quite impressive in appearance...
As one of the very few early American coins known struck in gold, this singular lot may well possibly be the most significant and valuable Colonial coin that we have ever offered.'' To this, the present cataloguer can only add that, while the piece is indisputably struck from genuine dies there is no reason to assume it was part of the mid to late 17th c. farthing issue. Its fabric and crude edging, however, suggest a date not long afterwards, probably in the early 18th c. The gold St. Patrick's farthing in the Norweb sale was a fake from well known false dies.
Philip Rashleigh of Menabilly (late 18th c.) to his great-nephew Jonathan Rashleigh to his son Evelyn William Rashleigh, Rashleigh Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, June 21, 1909, lot 1126, illustrated on Plate XVIII), bought by Spink & Son for £83 in a sale that saw a NE Shilling sell for £9/15; unknown intermediaries; Colonel E.H.R. Green Estate, Wayte Raymond on June 20, 1933, F.C.C. Boyd Estate, John J. Ford, Jr., Stack's ANA sale (August 24, 1976, lot 21), unsold (at $46,000).
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| Hammer Price: $160,000.00
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