P. Scott Rubin:
The Gold St. Patrick Farthing is a unique coin from the John J. Ford, Jr. collection. It is struck from dies that match dies used for other St. Patrick Farthing coinage. The weight of this unique coin falls within the expected limits for a gold Sovereign of the era. The coin has a crudely reeded edge and an obvious scratch on the right side of the obverse, which may have been a crude attempt to verify the purity of the gold.
One other Gold St. Patrick Farthing has been reported, but that coin has a plain edge, it is under-weight and struck from unknown dies. It is believed to be a forgery. This forgery is from the Norweb collection and it currently resides in the collection of The American Numismatic Society.
The unique Ford gold St. Patrick Farthing is said to have come from Rashleigh Collection sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge on June 21, 1909 as lot 1126 where it was bought for 83 Pounds by Spink & Son. It is believed to have gone at some point to the Col. Green collection and then to Wayte Raymond who in 1933 sold the gold Farthing to F.C.C. Boyd. From there, it went to the Ford Collection. Ford offered the coin for sale in Stack’s 1976 ANA sale as lot 21 where it did not sell even though a price of $46,000 was said to have been offered. The coin was last offered in Stack’s January 18, 2005 Part VII of the Ford Collection as lot 2 realizing $184,000 including the 15% buyer’s premium.
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