It was my lucky night! New Jersey Numismatic Society members Bill Liatys and MichaelBrooks surprised me by bringing an assortment of 40 to 50 raw and slabbed colonials to ourApril 2023 NJNS meeting for me to examine, ranging in grades from About Good to Mint State.It was the first time I had held a number of these specimens in my own hands since reading aboutthem in the Red Book. They included colonials from VT, MA, CT, NY, NJ, and VA, as well asRosa Americana 2 Pence and Half Pence, Machin's Mills, Mott Store Cards, Hibernia-VocePopuli coins, Talbot Allum & Lee examples, Nova Constellatio coppers, Woods Hibernia,Kentucky tokens, a Franklin Press Token, Washington pieces, North American tokens, and Bill'sprized London Elephant token. It was fascinating to examine these specimens with mymagnifying glass!

I've gained a wealth of knowledge about colonial coins from talking with Ray Williams andreading his column on colonial numismatics in The Numismatist, reading articles about NewJersey coppers in The C4 Newsletter, and being part of a New Jersey Coppers Facebook group.Holding those colonial coppers in my hands at our meeting and seeing Facebook posts of NewJersey copper varieties helped me decide to purchase my first New Jersey copper.

To further educate myself, before I started looking into specimens for sale, I conducted researchon the Newman Numismatic Portal, examined Stack's Bowers and Heritage online auctionrecords, and studied PCGS CoinFacts. I also reread sections pertaining to New Jersey coppers inthe Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins, by Q. David Bowers.

Next, I examined 400 to 500 New Jersey coppers on various dealer websites, ranging in gradefrom About Good to Mint State. I kept returning to a 1787 38-c NGC XF 40 piece listed on ChrisMcCawley's Early Cents website (earlycents.com). After a phone conversation with LucasBaldridge at Early Cents, the copper was mine!

I chose this coin for its beautiful reddish-brown color and glossy surfaces. I also like that it isstruck slightly off center. I love this piece despite its planchet flaws and lack of a full date asstruck. It was described as a possible condition census level coin for the variety. I was alsoattracted to the provenance, which includes Catherine Bullowa, Jon Hansen, and Donald Partricksummarized on the Early Cents website as

(As a side note: My wife Beth, and I had seen Catherine Bullowa's tables at the New YorkInternational Convention in January 2017, and I was impressed by her extensive inventory. Irecognized Bullowa from photographs and articles I had read about her distinguished career as aprofessional numismatist. She was busy with the show at the time, while Beth and I moved on tosee more bourse table offerings - but after her death later that year, I sincerely regretted nothaving struck up a conversation with her to learn about her journey as a coin dealer.)

I was so excited when my new copper arrived in late August. It even came with the original 2x2envelope from the Donald G. Partrick Collection. What a lovely piece! I couldn't be happier withit!

I am now researching auction records to learn more about the provenance of the piece. I alsolooked it up on NGC Verification and then researched the variety in NGC Coin Explorer. Ofparticular interest to me are articles about Catherine Bullowa and Donald Partrick that I found onthe Numismatic Bibliomania Society website. Two excellent articles, both by Pete Smith, are in The E-Sylum: Volume 26, Number 23, June 4,2023; and in The E-Sylum: Volume 25, Number 29, July 17,2022.

I was excited about Ray Williams loaning me his book on New Jersey State Coppers by RogerSiboni, John Howes, and A. Buell Ish, to learn more about this coinage! It was a joy to spendevenings reading this massive work. My favorite sections were (pp. 47-54), (pp. 57-81),and (pp. 85-102). I plan to purchase Michael Demling's 2nd editionof his New Jersey Coppers Attribution Guide if I decide to pursue more varieties of NJ coppers.

I am honored that my New Jersey copper was once in the coin cabinets of Donald Partridge andCatherine Bullowa. I plan to keep learning more about these figures and the coins in theircollections. May their memories be cherished.

Note: Lucas Baldridge of Early Cents kindly gave me permission to use the obverse and reverseimages of my coin from the Early Cents website to accompany this article.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
DONALD G. PARTRICK (1926-2020)(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n29a14.html)
CATHERINE ELIAS BULLOWA-MOORE (1919-2017)(https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n23a15.html)