1641-A 15 Den Gadoury-22 MS(PCGS#829560)

Winter 2022 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

1001

等级

AU58

价格

118,647

详细说明

Superlative 1641-A Billon Quinzain Perhaps Finest Known 1641-A French Colonies 15 Deniers. Gadoury-22, Ciani-1710, Breen-272. AU-58 (PCGS). 36.7 grains. Reverse aligned slightly clockwise from medal turn. Dies 1-A. A specimen of incredible quality, given the usual condition of survivors of this issue. Boldly struck devices are well centered on attractive glossy gray surfaces. An entirely wholesome piece, with only trivial patches of natural roughness and a few short planchet cracks at the edges, including one centered over 12 o'clock on the reverse. A thin curlicue fissure, resembling a lintmark, is seen beneath the fleur-de-lis at the northwest quadrant of the reverse cross. All devices are nicely detailed, with only RA of FRAN at 7 o'clock of the obverse periphery showing any notable softness. It's hard to imagine there is a finer specimen of this rarity, though we have not seen all of them. Jeff Rock has estimated a total population of about 10 pieces (noting that this issue appears rarer than a 1670-A 15 sols). This population includes three in the Bank of Canada. None are in the ANS Collection, and none were in the Ford Collection. The example in our January 1998 sale reappeared in the Partrick Collection liquidation. The nice example in our (Bowers and Merena's) July 1997 sale (lot 1034), graded EF, has not been traced, and while we expected this to be the Breen plate coin (ex Hinderling, Terranova), that appears to be a different but perhaps similar quality specimen. Breen knew of four specimens: the plate coin, two said to be in a European museum, and another with provenance to a 1973 hoard. None of these square with the ones we record, but there may be some duplication among those four, the three in Ottawa, the six in the Martin Collection, and the two examples offered in American auctions in the last 30 years (Partrick, ex Stack's 1998, and the 1997 Bowers and Merena coin). Though demand in North America has been greater than on the Continent for at least a few generations, there are probably some still in France, but we would be hard-pressed to locate as many as 20 examples. It seems safe to say that a majority of those in private hands are in the present sale. Additional information pertaining to this lot: The Billon Quinzains of 1641 Within mere decades of the 1608 establishment of a permanent settlement at Quebec, the French settlements in Canada evinced a need for a circulating medium. While furs were the straw that stirred the colonial economy, Quebec and other settlements were growing with families, religious institutions, and local commerce. The French monetary economy was a mess in the 17th century, with near constant revaluations of specie, precipitous inflation, and a circulating coinage that was more medieval than modern. Among the most medieval types in French circulation were the diverse hammered douzains, struck in dozens of localities for well over two centuries. These coins, dating back to the late 14th century, were struck in billon, a low grade alloy of copper and silver that tarnished badly and wore out completely. In June 1640, the French authorities called for all such coins to be returned to French mints to receive an oval fleur-de-lis countermark. Those that did would be revalued from 12 deniers (a douzain) to 15 deniers (a quinzain), with a portion of the increase in value retained by the mintmasters to encourage participation. After a short grace period, all such uncountermarked douzains would be deemed property of the Crown. The coins below represent a short-lived experiment from the year after the 1640 counterstamping edict: rather than applying counterstamps, the French mints apparently considered replacing the billon medium with brand new coins whose design included the required oval fleur-de-lis. Judging from the rarity of these coins today (and common sense), the experiment was a failure. It was far easier to apply a countermark to these soft, low-value issues than recall them, melt them, recast planchet stock, roll and cut planchets, and strike new coins from fresh dies. The billon douzains became quinzains once countermarked, but they were popularly called sols; the countermarked coins were thus known as sols marquesor "marked sols." These quinzains made their way to Canada in large numbers by virtue of high local valuations. From 1662 on, these coins were valued at 24 deniers in Canada, which attracted so many of the coins that within five years "it has resulted that several persons, since that time, have brought from France a very great number of these, so that there are scarcely to be seen any other coins, which has brought about very great injury to the public." (Shortt, Canadian Currency, Exchange, and Finance During the French Period, page 17). An adjustment to 20 deniers stuck for most of the rest of the 17th century throughout New France, including Canada and the West Indies, but so many were in circulation that they continued to be seen until the end of the 18th century in the islands. Archaeological finds have included specimens along the American Gulf Coast and in the Mississippi Valley, as well as throughout Canada. There is good evidence (cited by Crosby and Breen) that these were seen often enough in Connecticut in the early 1720s that the General Assembly called for an official valuation of them at twopence each. The place of the douzains countermarked in 1640 among the most important subsidiary coinages of North America in the 17th century is secure. The rare 1641 quinzains must be adopted similarly, as their designs speak to the intimate connection between the two issues, though no examples of these rare coins are known to have been recovered archaeologically. Provenance: From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier ex Anthony Terranova Collection; John Agre and Dave Wnuck (Coin Rarities Online), via Mike Wierzba, January 2008. PCGS Population: 1, none finer. The four coins graded by PCGS are all in the Syd Martin Collection. PCGS# 829560. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA.