Important British and World Coins

United States of America, William Pitt, Farthing, 1766, 3.68g/6h (Durst 313; Betts 520). Dull coppery surface with hints of bright brass underneath, high points of hair and ship flat, otherwise about very fine and patinated, extremely rare (£5,000-7,000)

Provenance:
From an old North Country Collection.

Slabbed in PCGS holder, graded VF 35. The legend on the so-called Pitt tokens refers to the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. It would appear that they were struck in the immediate aftermath of the euphoria for Pitt in the United States at that time. Little is known of the exact circumstances of their issue, although they have been popularly ascribed to James Smither (1741-97), an English gunsmith and metal engraver active in Philadelphia in the 1760s and 1770s.

The present specimen is almost as fine as that in the Garrett collection (Part III, lot 1320), sold for $5,500 in 1980, which in itself was a close match for the best of the two in the Norweb collection (Part I, lot 1242), auctioned for $4,620 in 1983. The second Norweb specimen (Part I, lot 1241) has, like the present piece, a ‘copper’ appearance and was described by the cataloguer on that occasion as ‘probably unique…although we suspect [that] others may lie unattributed in accumulations and non-collector cabinets.’ It has been estimated that there are fewer than 12 William Pitt farthings extant; easily the finest seen by the cataloguer of the present specimen was that in the John J. Ford collection (Part VII, lot 137), sold in January this year for $37,500.

Other William Pitt-related medals are in Auction 67A, lot 1582