1785 Vermont Landscape Copper VERMONTIS RR-4 NGC VFDetails Cert# 4749340-004

Description

""SEE PHOTOS"" This attractive 1785 VERMONTIS RR-4 NGC VF Details Cert# 4749340-004 Vermont Landscape Copper is the exact item being offered in this deal.
1785 Vermont Copper.  Ryder 4, the VERMONTIS type.  Rarity-4 (possibly higher).  Very Fine, a difficult coin to grade as the Ryder 4’s are among the worst-struck of the Vermont Landscape issues and usually on a mediocre planchet stock as well.  This one is amazingly choice for a variety that often comes ugly, and is quite sharp save for the very top of the obverse and corresponding area of the reverse which are indistinct due to a pre-strike planchet flaw in that area.  On the obverse, the all-important VERMONTIS legend is strong (this is what most people want since this is the only obverse to have that spelling), and PUBLICA is strong as well, save the first letter which is only half visible.  RES is the word most affected by the flaws, with the first letter nearly all gone and the second two about half visible.  The Green Mountain design on the obverse shows trees at the left and right, but the middle section, including the sun face, is indistinct also due to those flaws.  The flaws (two of them) were pretty deep on the planchet before the coin was struck, and the striking pressure has flattened them out mostly, but there was simply no metal in those areas to flow into the deepest part of the die.  The reverse fared better since the flaws were on the obverse, and the legend is full, save for the MA of DECIMA; the stars and rays under those letters are weak, everything else bold, and most of the all-seeing eye is sharp too, all of this despite being struck slightly off-center which adds to the charm.  GORGEOUS medium brown, the surfaces are hard and really very pleasing – with a couple tiny striae and absolutely no nicks, marks or scratches.  This immediately makes the coin better than most, even with the pre-strike flaws – the variety is usually found dark, rough and heavily flawed, when it is found at all.  A very difficult variety to locate, not quite as rare as the Ryder 3, but one that is seldom offered in any condition.  Always in demand since it is the only genuine obverse with the VERMONTIS spelling in the legend, making it popular to both type and variety collectors (the extremely rare Ryder 5 issues also have the VERMONTIS legend but these are contemporary counterfeits).  We suspect the variety is scarcer than the R-4 rating, which Carlotto notes is an estimate; in cataloging the Ford coin, Michael Hodder noted that he has seen 57 examples of the variety (the Ford sale contained a beautiful AU at ,400 and a nice VF/EF at ,925), though we have seen five or six of the Ryder 6 variety for every Ryder 4, and think the difference is greater than expected.  This general type is pictured and listed on Page 72 of the 2017 edition of The Redbook.  1786 VERMONTIS type), where Very Fine’s are listed at 50.  The newly-published book on colonials by Q. David Bowers, the Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins, lists this type as his W-2015 (page 85), where the type is priced higher than in the Redbook, ,400 in Fine and ,000 in VF.
Q. David Bowers description:
Obverse:  Only variety with VERMONTIS spelling.  Six trees to the left of sun, two to the right.
Reverse:  Doubled of bifurcated style similar to preceding two reverses, but a different die.  Period after STELLA. above ray, tail of Q between star and tip of ray, star points to left leg of second A in QUARTA.  The all-seeing eye at the center is inverted with the eyebrow below the eyeball.  Die not used elsewhere.
Q. David Bowers estimates in his book the total population to be URS-8 (65-124)  I found a total of 30 Certified coins. All grades (PCGS 22, NGC 4 & ANACS 4)
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