 1670-A 15 Sols. Silver. Extremely Fine. Variety with small stop after TVI. Breen dies 1-A (see New Netherlands 54th Sale, description of Lot 1), Br.255(1988), Bre.501, Z.1, L.250, G&C.3, H.4. 26.3 mm. 104.9 gns. Remarkable, deep coin silver gray in the fields on the obverse, lighter gray on Louis XIV's hair, visage, and the tops of the letters in the legend. On the reverse the piece is a lighter gray in color with some very pale oyster gray showing in the right field. Both the obverse and reverse are about perfectly centered, and both show a near complete border of denticles. There is a very light short scratch running from the upper right of the crown to the base of neighboring R, the only important defect requiring mention on the piece. It is no wonder that Mr. Ford considered this to be the second finest known. Obverse sunface for Paris mintmaster (1666-1672) Pierre Cheval; reverse tower for engraver (1661-1674) Jean-Baptiste du Tour.
In his order of February 19, 1670 authorizing the issue, Louis XIV stated that the coinage was requested by ''Les Directeurs generaux de la Compagnie des Indes occidentales Nous ayons remontre que pour la facilite du commerce dans les Isles at terres ferme de l'Amérique et autres lieux de la concession que Nous leur avons accordee....'' The finest seen by the cataloguer. Mr. Ford thought his was second finest after Zay's FDC piece in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Extremely rare: the cataloguer has traced only 14 different specimens, the same number Mr. Ford thought survived, including: this; BN ex Emil Zay; Parsons:2321; Long Island collection; Garrett:1297 (VF at $29,000); Roper:181 (Fine at $15,400); Argenor sale (Paris, April 2000) lot 379 (VF at $29,000); New Netherlands 54th Sale, lot 1; three in the Bank of Canada collection; British Museum; ANS ex Norweb, Tennant collections; Spink (Zurich) October, 1988, lot 65 (Near VF). A durable pedigree, this specimen has been in just two named collections since it was struck in 1670! John Sharp (1645-1714), Archbishop of York (1691-1714), began collecting coins in 1687. His manual of the coins of Great Britain, written in 1698/9, was published in London in 1785. This is the second highly important coin in Mr. Ford's collection that can be traced back to the Sharp Collection (the other being the gold St. Patrick farthing).
Ex A.H. Baldwin & Sons, Ltd. on October 12, 1973; Archbishop John Sharp Collection.
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| Hammer Price: $130,000.00
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