LORD ST. OSWALD 1794 HALF CENT REAPPEARS

In 1795, an Englishman named William Strickland returned to his home following a sight-seeing trip to America that began in 1794. On his voyage home, Strickland carried with him two 1794 Half Cents, a 1793 Chain Cent, twenty-four 1794 Large Cents, three 1795 Half Dollars, two 1794 Silver Dollars, three 1795 Silver Dollars, and a mixed lot of Colonial coins. Most of the coins he acquired were in what we would call "Mint State" today and many represent the finest examples of their type known to exist. The total face value of his thirty-five coins was a mere $6.76 but, today, that small handful of coins is worth millions of dollars.

Strickland's collection wound its way through gift and inheritance to Rowland Denys Guy Winn, Major the Lord St. Oswald, M.C., whose title has stuck with the coins ever since. In 1964, the London auction house of Christie's, Manson & Woods, Ltd. sold the majority of the Lord St. Oswald Federal coins. The remaining coins, including the Colonial coins, appeared in a Christie's auction held in London in 1992.

Since 2016, none of the untraced Lord St. Oswald coins have ever appeared on the market. Thus, it was a real surprise to see this 1794 Half Cent appear as Lot 3606 in the April 23, 2021 sale of the Donald G. Partrick Collection by Heritage Auctions, where it was offered as an NGC MS64RB.

As mentioned earlier, Lord St. Oswald had TWO 1794 Half Cents, both of which happened to be of the same die variety (Cohen 9, Rarity 2). For comparison purposes, the other Lord St. Oswald 1794 Half Cent appeared as Lot 3005 in Stack's/Bowers' sale of the D. Brent Pogue Collection, where it was graded PCGS MS66RB and sold for $258,500.

The fact that Lord St. Oswald had two Mint State Red-Brown 1794 Half Cents is extraordinary considering that only ten Mint State Red-Brown Half Cents exist of all dates in the 1794-1797 Liberty Cap type.

Now that this 1794 Half Cent has been "found", there are only four "missing" Lord St. Oswald coins missing. If you run across one of them, please let me know. However, I won't be holding my breath!

To read the complete article, see:
A "Long-Lost" Lord St. Oswald 1794 Half Cent Reappears (https://numismaticdetectives.com/blog/f/a-long-lost-lord-st-oswald-1794-half-cent-reappers)

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