1776 1/2 P Massachusetts - Janus Half Penny

Coin Details

Auction Record

$517,000 • VF35 • 11-2019 • Heritage Auctions

Description

Among the most spectacular rarities in American colonial numismatics, the 1776 Massachusetts Janus copper halfpenny is cataloged as Breen 973 and Whitman 5880, identified as PCGS #291. Only three to five specimens are known to exist, and an auction record of $517,000 for a VF35 specimen at Heritage Auctions in November 2019 confirms this piece's position among the most valuable American colonial coins. Struck in copper with a 28 mm diameter and plain edge, the coin takes its name from the obverse design featuring a Janus head — the two-faced Roman god who looks simultaneously forward and backward, an extraordinarily appropriate symbol for a coin dated 1776, the year America simultaneously looked back at its colonial past and forward toward independence. The iconographic choice of Janus was unique among American colonial and state coinages, none of which employed this classical motif, making the Massachusetts Janus halfpenny visually distinctive as well as historically significant. The Massachusetts attribution connects it to one of the most politically active colonies in the independence movement, though the exact circumstances of its production — whether as an authorized colonial issue, a private token, or a pattern proposal — remain debated among scholars. The extreme rarity of three to five known specimens places the Janus halfpenny in the same pantheon of American colonial rarities as the Brasher Doubloon and the 1652 NE Shilling, pieces whose auction appearances constitute landmark events in the numismatic calendar.

Rarity Notes

Extremely rare. Only 3-5 specimens known.

Cross References

Breen 973; Whitman 5880