THE SILVER 1723 WOOD'S HIBERNIA FARTHINGS

In 1722, William Wood obtained a patent to strike copper coins for Ireland over a fourteen year period. In actuality, Wood produced copper coins only from 1722 to 1724, at which time public resistance to the coins and a smear campaign by Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels) forced Wood to discontinue the operation.

In Wood’s three short years of production, he struck Farthings and Halfpennies for circulation as well as a few Pattern Farthings and Halfpennies in 1724. Numerous die varieties comprise the mintages of the regular-issue Farthings and Halfpennies.

Included among Wood’s Hibernia Farthings are some unusual silver pieces dated 1723. In the past, these silver versions have been called Pattern coins or prototypes, but their true nature is unknown. Syd Martin, in The Hibernia Coinage of William Wood (1720-1724), listed three different Farthing varieties in silver: one of which was known only in silver; another that was an off-metal variant; and a third of indeterminate status Walter Breen, in his eponymous Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, listed two silver varieties as off-metal strikes with no reference to them being pattern coins.

Status aside, how rare are the Silver 1723 Hibernia Farthings? I’ve always thought of them as being very rare, since they appear at auction rather infrequently. Martin assigned a rating of Rarity 5 (or 46-75 known) to each of two of his varieties, which means he thought there were approximately 92 to 150 known. Breen called one of his varieties Very rare and the other Ex. Rare but gave no numerical clues. PCGS lists 36 examples in their PCGS Population Report, but that number may be inflated due to resubmissions. PCGS Auction Prices list 51 citations, but that number includes many duplicate appearances of the same coin.

By analyzing and examining historic auction records and catalogs, I have identified 32 demonstrably different Silver 1723 Hibernia Farthings and gathered photographs of each. Many of these coins came from well-known collectors such as Norweb, Ford, Partrick, Craige, and Eliasberg. Assuming there are several pieces out there that were either missed or have not yet come on the market, I believe a fair estimate of the total number of Silver 1723 Hibernia Farthings to be on the order of 35 to 45 pieces.

Here’s what an analysis of the 32 examples in my database reveals. Twenty-seven examples are of the Martin 3.2-Bc.10 variety (Martin estimated 46-75 examples). Four examples are of the Martin 3.23-C.1 variety (Martin estimated 46-75 examples. Only one example is of the Martin 3.23-C.1 variety (Martin estimated 2-3 known).

To read the complete article, see:
How Rare Are The Silver 1723 Wood's Hibernia Farthings? (https://numismaticdetectives.com/blog/f/how-rare-are-the-silver-1723-woods-hibernia-farthings)

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