Great Britain 1772 penny
This specimen was lot 46340 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Chicago, August 2024), where it sold for $168. The catalog description[1] noted, "GREAT BRITAIN. Penny, 1772. London Mint. George III. PCGS MS-65." This type is listed for 1763, 1766, 1770, 1772, 1776 and 1779-86. Many were included in the Maundy sets and thereby saved. The mint did not produce near enough small change for the industrial boom of the eighteenth century, leading to a proliferation of private tokens. The situation would not be rectified until the reform of 1817. It is difficult to appreciate that prior to 1797, all English pennies were struck in silver, a holdover from medieval issues.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 0.50 g, 0.925 fine silver.
Catalog reference: S-3759; KM-594.
- Lobel, Richard, Mark Davidson, Allan Hailstone and Eleni Calligas, Coincraft's Standard Catalogue of English and UK Coins, 1066 to Date, London: Coincraft, 1995.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- Skingley, Philip, ed., Standard Catalogue of British Coins: Coins of England & the United Kingdom, 46th edition, London: Spink & Son, 2011.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, August 2024 Global Showcase Auction, World & Ancient Coins, featuring The Emilio M. Ortiz Collection, The Richard Margolis Collection and The Rutherford Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.
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