 1786 Connecticut copper. Mailed Bust Left. M.8-O.1. R-9. Choice Extremely Fine. The Miller Obverse Plate Coin. The Miller Sale Coin. 124.7 gns. 30.8 x 28.9 mm. The unique double struck 1786 M.5.4-O.1 with blundered legend UCTORI that misled Miller into listing it as a new obverse (to borrow a quote from a Connecticut specialist that is as appropriate here as it was in an earlier context: ''Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see / Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er will be.'').
Nice olive brown and gold in color on both sides. Surfaces on both sides microgranular but basically free from flaws. Remarkable obverse, appearing to have been drawn out to the lower right, broad denticles around save at the upper right. Obverse severely shift double struck but imperceptibly so and that is what fooled Miller into thinking it was a new obverse die. It is possible that this piece was deliberately made to look the way it does. Reverse double struck first with a full impression of the die, followed by an incuse impression from an obverse coin which had been stuck in the die causing the piece to spread out and giving it a ragged appearance at the top. An interesting error in its own right, made more so by its numismatic history.
Ex Henry C. Miller Collection (Tom Elder, May 29, 1920, lot 1858). Square collector's ticket accompanies the lot.
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