Brazil. 1754 6400 Reis or “Joe.” Bahia Mint. Clipped while circulating to a below-standard weight, false twin-leaf style edge device fraudulently re-applied. Russo-399. Souza Lobo-290. Gomes 42.06. Weight previously published as 11.73 grams. Regal dies, as Swiss Bank Corp 9-89:215 (unclipped, 14.28 grams) and Eliasberg:1169 (unclipped, 14.22 grams, $2,300). Date missing from Sotheby’s famed Monnaies du Brazil sale (Geneva, November 1987), the 1910 Meili sale and the 1909 Ramos sale. Date called “Extr. Rare” in 1911 de Freitas de Silva sale by Schulman.

Plugged once with a gold plug of significant length, peened down to left of hole from reverse. Outline of plug visible from obverse beneath E to left upright of B.

Countermarked EB in oval field, stop/centering dot between, identical to Ford VII:152 (1765-R 6400 Reis), Eliasberg:3016 (1774 guinea), and the Brasher doubloons. Eliasberg:3015 was a different punch. This punch appears to be the principal one used on Brasher-marked regulated issues, though his shop used a great diversity of marks over the long course of Brasher’s silver and goldsmithing career.

Brunk listed 19 EB-marked specimens of this 6400 reis denomination, struck at either Portuguese or Brazilian mints. Garrett owned one Brasher-marked 6400 Reis (Garrett IV:2345), a 1755-dated specimen from Portugal that reappeared as Roper:515 and is now impounded in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation collection. Roper also owned a double-marked EB and Script B (for John Burger of New York) Brazillian 1757 Rio 6400 Reis. Eliasberg owned an EB-marked Brazil 1746 Bahia 6400 Reis, though the EB mark was different. Unlike John Burger marks, which are found on 6400 Reis with only a few exceptions, Brasher marks seem to appear on British guineas as often as on the “Joes” of Brazil and Portugal. Garrett owned three Brasher-marked guineas, Eliasberg had one, Roper had one, another appeared in the May 1999 Spink sale that was said to have been uncovered in a pot in Georgia! Other appearances could be noted (i.e. the guinea in the 1975 ANA sale, the multiply-marked 1753 Rio Joe in the June 1984 Brand sale, et al). A Brasher-marked 1730 Colombia 2 escudos cob in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation collection appears to be the only Brasher-marked cob known to us, though not the earliest: a 1727-dated 1600 Reis in the Gold Rush Collection beats it by a few years. A 1733 R French louis d’or marked by Brasher appeared in the May 1981 Spink sale. Coins regulated by Brasher appear to be slightly rarer than those done by his New York colleague John Burger.

The weight of this specimen at roughly 181 grains places it woefully under the 216-grain 1784 New York standard for a $8 coin, suggesting that the close, circular clipping around the circumference was accomplished after this piece left Brasher’s workshop. At its present weight, this would have circulated at $6.70, about 84% of its value when Brasher regulated it. Regulated coins are unusual among numismatic objects in that, like an old house, their history is dynamic, and their character is enriched by modifications made at various points in time and for various purposes. They could have circulated in several different locales, at several different values, and their value could go both up and down. All of these changes were part of the useful circulating life of the coin.

Waldo Newcomer paid $165 for the presently described coin and chose it from among his holdings to display at the 1914 ANS Exhibition, where it is plated on plate 13; it may have been the first piece of regulated gold he acquired. He also owned the Jackman specimen of the Brasher doubloon, punch on wing variety, acquired in 1918 and now in the ANS collection. One of two known 1742-dated Lima Style Brasher imitation 8 escudos was also in the Newcomer collection. While his ownership of a New York-style and a Lima-style Brasher doubloon is widely known, less known is the fact that he owned several regulated gold coins. The other EB-marked coins listed in his inventory were a 1747 6400 reis, graded Fair (paid $50); a 1728 400 reis, graded Fair (paid $60); and a George II pound described as “clipped at bottom to bring down weight” and graded Fine (paid $100). The 400 Reis may have been a misattribution of a 1600 Reis (the 400 was the same size but silver, not likely to have been regulated); further, it could be the same piece as the well-worn 1727 1600 Reis in the 2005 Gold Rush Collection sale, the final digit of whose date was somewhat weak.

The 6400 Reis of Brazil and Portugal, variously called a “4 escudos,” a “Peca,” a “Joe,” or a “Half Joe,” was the most commonly transacted gold coin in North America in the second half of the 18^th century. Despite the fact that regulation of gold coins was not limited to New York City, the Big Apple was apparently the center of this enterprise. When Thomas Jefferson was in Philadelphia in 1793, he noted in his Memorandum Books that he exchanged “two pieces of New York gold” with a merchant friend who served as his personal banker while in Philadelphia. A few days later, he noted receiving $8 as a partial payment for the two coins – good evidence that Jefferson’s “New York gold” were actually two half Joes (each worth $8), perhaps ones whose regulation by Brasher or Burger made Jefferson associate them with New York. The other option is, of course, a couple of Brasher doubloons, or perhaps a handful of Brasher half doubloons – worth $8 – though the Brasher half doubloon in the Smithsonian is the only one known today. The $8 Half Joe was such a fine standard of value, fixed and not prone to depreciation, that Annapolis, Maryland’s City Council clerk James Brooks used “the half Johannes or half Joe” as his standard when creating a chart showing the depreciation of paper money between September 1776 and April 1781. The dependability of the gold medium was vital to merchants who traded overseas, particularly those who dealt with the islands of the West Indies. With no trade transacting with England legally in the early 1780s, the unregulated trade with the West Indies became vital to the nation’s economy and national security. At the center of this trade was Portuguese gold.

Regulated gold coins, particularly those marked by Ephraim Brasher, have long been collected by major U.S. specialists who recognized their importance. Despite little published work on them, such specimens found their way into the major cabinets of the early 20^th century. This well-provenanced example would grace a similarly world-class collection.

Acquired by Waldo Newcomer before 1914; exhibited at the 1914 American Numismatic Society Exhibition and published on plate 13; part of the Newcomer dispersal of the 1930s, via either B. Max Mehl or Wayte Raymond; unknown intermediaries; Heritage’s sale of the Gold Rush Collection, January 2005, Lot 30014.