1787 NJ 1/2P 2nd U over S in Pluribus Half Penny

Coin Details

Description

Cataloged as Maris 37-Z and Whitman 4835, this 1787 New Jersey copper half penny exhibits a distinctive over-letter variety where the second U in PLURIBUS was punched over an erroneous S, creating a visible remnant of the underlying letter beneath the corrective punch. Over-letter varieties in the New Jersey copper series provide direct evidence of how the private die sinkers prepared their inscription punches sequentially by hand, occasionally placing the wrong letter before correcting the mistake without reworking the entire die. The New Jersey coppers were authorized by an act of the state legislature on June 1, 1786, granting coinage privileges initially to Walter Mould, Thomas Goadsby, and Albion Cox, who operated minting facilities at Rahway and later Morristown and Elizabethtown. The obverse features a horse's head above a plow with the legend NOVA CAESAREA (New Jersey's Latin name), and the reverse displays a shield with E PLURIBUS UNUM. Struck in copper, the coin weighs approximately 6.7 grams with a 29 mm diameter and plain edge. Cataloged as PCGS #45425. Classified as scarce, this over-letter variety is particularly valued by colonial copper specialists because it directly illustrates the die production methodology — each letter had to be individually punched into the die steel using small letter punches, and the S-to-U correction preserved in the die face records a specific moment of human error during the engraving process that would otherwise be lost to history.

Rarity Notes

Scarce. Over-letter varieties provide insight into die production methods.

Cross References

Maris 37-Z; Whitman 4835