1796 Edwards Copy Kenny-1 R7 (R8+ as Uniface Reverse). PCGS graded MS-66 Brown. Uniface Reverse. Choice and highly lustrous chocolate brown with attractive bluish steel overtones and 10% of the slightly faded original red remaining. This piece would rate "gem" status if not for a very faint spot of a slightly different shade of chocolate brown toning over the A in HALF and another nestled between the wreath ribbon and the leaf below the T in CENT. The strike on the reverse is needle-sharp but very slightly off center to the left. The obverse, however, was struck through another blank planchet and displays only a ghost of Ms Liberty and no hint of the date or LIBERTY. The die alignment shows a 90 degree clockwise rotation between the "ghost" obverse and normal reverse relative to a head-to-foot die orientation. In addition, the second planchet was positioned slightly off center causing a knife edge around half of the "obverse" side. It is reasonable to assume there was a uniface obverse impression created when these two planchets were struck simultaneously, and we might even speculate that this was done with the specific intent to create uniface impressions, one from each die. Breen mentions a single uniface impression for the reverse at the bottom of page 167 in his
Encyclopedia of United States Half Cents 1793-1857. That coin first appeared in Edward Cogans 16-20 September 1878 auction as lot #2380 and later as lot #337 in the F. C. C. Boyd collection sale conducted by Numismatic Gallery 11 May 1945. It is reasonable to assume this is the same coin. Breen also mentions an unconfirmed 1950 report of another example that turned up in 1946, but he never saw that piece and it may have been the same coin (or perhaps the companion uniface obverse impression). Regardless, this is a fantastic piece of the highest rarity.
Our grade is MS64+, very close to MS65. The Uniface feature and Davy provenance are noted on the PCGS label. Weight 94.5 grains, the heaviest seen for any of these Edwards copies. Davy #96.3.8.
Estimated Value $10,000-UP.
Ex Edward Cogan 9/16/1878:2380-F. C. C. Boyd, Numismatic Gallery 5/11/1945:337-Spence collection-Stack's family collection-Stacks 9/23/2009:4203.
Selections from the Davy Collection of US Half Cents Part 2
