Acquiring a c.1670 St. Patrick New Jersey Farthing

On the night of December 19, 2022, New Jersey Numismatic Society (NJNS) members gatheredat the Madison Public Library to celebrate the holiday season. We had a festive evening andenjoyed spending some time together. During the show-and-tell segment of our meeting, memberMike McKeever showed us his c.1670 St. Patrick New Jersey Farthing NGC F-12. Whilestudying it with my magnifying glass, I asked Mike several questions about the piece.

Mike described how, several years earlier, he had noticed a St. Patrick farthing listing in a SydMartin auction catalogue. This experience piqued his interest in the St. Patrick series. Later,McKeever decided that he wanted to purchase his own specimen. He achieved a winning bid ona St. Patrick farthing in a London auction.

This purchase was just one of the more recent in Mike's coin collecting pursuits, which go backover 50 years. A specialist in Papal, Swiss, Irish and Anglo-Gallic coins, his holdings include anexceptional and rare array of Hiberno-Norse coinage of Ireland. Mike gave a fascinatingpresentation on these early pieces at our Society last year! Recently, he decided it is time to sellhis extensive collection. His coin cabinet will be sold through auction houses in London,Monaco, and Zurich, along with several prominent stateside dealers.

Curious to learn more about Mike's enigmatic St. Patrick farthing, I began to do online researchof Stack's Bowers and Heritage auction records, PCGS CoinFacts, NGC Coin Explorer, andinformation that I could find on the Newman Numismatic Portal. Next, I studied St. Patrickfarthings on ebay, the Certified Coin Exchange, and other online offerings, ranging in gradesfrom AG to AU. I read online portions of papers presented on Mark Newby's St. Patrick Coinagefrom the Coinage of the Americas Conference (COAC) held at the American NumismaticSociety, New York, November 11, 2006, published as Oliver D. Hoover's (ed.) Newby's St.Patrick Coinage, 2009. I also referred to the Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and EarlyAmerican Coins, by Q. David Bowers. Ray Williams told me about an ANS video of the 2006COAC on YouTube which I watched, as well. Soon I was experiencing the pure joy ofresearching a numismatic topic completely new to me!

I was excited about Ray Williams loaning me Sydney Martin's St. Patrick Coinage: For Irelandand New Jersey, 2018, and Oliver D. Hoover's (ed.) Newby's St Patrick Coinage, 2009, toconduct my own numismatic research! Ray also kindly let me study his six St. Patrick coins (two1/2 d and four 1/4 d), including a higher grade St. Patrick farthing that David Gladfelter used as aplate coin for one of his articles.

I spent many enjoyable evenings reading these two books. In Martin's text, Chapter Five on (pp. 37-368) was my favorite section of the book, with detaileddescriptions and explanations of iconographic symbols used on the obverse and reverse sides ofthe coins. It also features wonderful color images of various die states. I also liked the Appendix (pp. 395-484), which includes examples of copies and counterfeit St. Patrick coin specimens, agrading guide, and rarity descriptions for small St. Patrick coins.

On January 6, I had a phone conversation with Mike about buying his St. Patrick farthing. Aftersome negotiations, we made a deal! I got the coin on February 20, which was also my sonTristan's birthday. Mike brought his farthing and Google photograph books of specimens fromsome of his thirteen categories of coin collecting to our February 20 NJNS meeting. His coinimages are remarkable! McKeever learned to perfect his coin photographing skills from anexpert during one of his trips to the ANS. I had the pleasure of admiring Mike's enlarged andsharp photographs of the obverse and reverse sides of my new acquisition.

I'm thrilled to own an example of this mysterious colonial coin! The exact mint location orproduction total remains unclear. To what extent did St. Patrick farthings circulate in NewJersey? The planchet quality is superior. It has a strong reverse with a clear view of the creaturesincluding Cora, a snake and a dragon. On the obverse, a tiny bit of brass splasher landed on theKing's head, a convenient provenance marker.

According to my DNA results, I have Irish ancestry. Who knows: perhaps some of my ancestorscarried coins like this when they first circulated in Ireland!

Jeff adds: