Last year I sold the above 1786 Connecticut copper, Miller 5.3-B.2 to a private collector. It was sent via registered mail, but was never delivered to its new owner. The Post Office has been unable to locate it - and even though registered mail is supposed to be signed for at every step, this package never was. It was either lost or, more likely, stolen in transit. The owner and I have decided to offer a $5,000 reward for the safe return of the coin - with no questions asked, and no legal repercussions as a result of that return. As the coin cannot legally be sold since it lacks clear title and has been reported as stolen to authorities, we hope this reward will ensure a return of this coin.

The piece is immediately recognizable, one of just four known examples of this variety, and considered to be the finest of the four, a little weaker but more attractive than Ford coin which was uncirculated but with heavy planchet flaws. This coins is ex Col. James Ellsworth Collection; Garrett Collection, Part III, October 1980, lot 1345; Anthony Terranova Collection, January 2012, and most recently in the Sydney Martin collection, October 2022, lot 1334. It is plated in Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, and in Randy Clark's The Identification and Classification of Connecticut Coppers 1785-1788.

When mailed it was in a PCGS slab with the Syd Martin provenance given, graded AU53, though the coin could have been removed from the slab at any point after it went missing.

If anyone knows of this coin, or has been offered it, please get in touch with Jeff Rock at (619) 929-7926 or at rosaamltd@gmail.com. Any contact will be completely confidential, and the $5,000 reward will be sent upon the safe return of the coin - again, with no questions asked.

The coin illustrated above is the actual specimen that went missing, and the image to the right shows the coin in the PCGS slab.