 1724/3 Rosa Americana Pattern Penny. GEORGIUS.DEI.GRATIA.REX. Br.131, Taxay C82, plated in AJN (October, 1903). Choice Uncirculated. Silvered Bath metal. 108.6 gns. 26.3 mm. Both sides have nearly full silvering remaining, the color a yellowish silver from the brassy yellow of the underlying Bath metal. The surfaces are sharp and show some faint striations from the rolled flan the piece was struck on. There are clear signs of shift double striking on both sides. Dave Bowers called this silvered in his cataloguing of the Brand II sale and the present cataloguer feels he was closer to the truth than Crosby and Taxay before him, both of whom said it was a strike in silver (unless they were referring to the silver piece in the preceding lot). Dr. Hall, who once owned this coin and published it in the American Journal of Numismatics (July, 1903) felt it was struck in German silver but this was an anachronism. The piece is difficult to figure out. It is obviously not silver but it is hard to be positive about what it really is. Silvered, as Bowers wrote, is close but if so, then the sharp strike and clear doubling suggest the planchet was silvered prior to striking. The striations visible in the fields suggest the strip the planchet was cut from was silvered but the edge also seems too dark for Bath metal yet has the parallel incuse lines typical of post strike Rosas. Getting to its true nature will offer its new owner hours of enjoyable study and conversation. Unique both in terms of its fabric and its obverse die; same reverse seen earlier.
Ex Joseph J. Mickley Collection (John W. Haseltine, January 31, 1879, lot 2333); Charles Ira Bushnell Collection (S.H. & H. Chapman, June 20, 1882, lot 222); Lorin G. Parmelee Collection (New York Coin & Stamp Company, June 25, 1890, lot 551); Dr. Thomas Hall Collection; Virgil Brand Collection II (Bowers & Merena, June 18, 1984, lot 948).
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