1787 NJ 1/2P 1787/1887, BN (Regular Strike)

P. Scott Rubin: The 1787 New Jersey Copper with the date 1787 struck over 1887 is one of the scarcest and mysterious of the New Jersey series. While it appear obvious that an error occurred while making the coin and it seems that someone first punched an eight where a seven should go in the date, the appearance of the two die combinations known with the Maris 35 obverse make the obvious questionable.

There is one obverse die, Maris 35 and two reverse dies Maris J and W used to make coins with the over date error. On the Maris 35-J marriage of the dies, the over date on some coins is very distinct yet on the Maris 35-W coins the over date usually appears weak or in one case not visible. Now take into account that the Maris 35-W coins seem to be made from die state one and die state two of the obverse die while Maris 35-J is only known struck from die state two and three of the obverse die.

This creates the view that as the central obverse of the Maris 35 die deteriorated, the overdate on the same die became stronger! While there are opinions of how and why this could have occurred we are not sure which if any is correct.

To make matters even more interesting both coins are rare, the more common Maris 35-J has an estimated survival of only about 30 coins while the rarer Maris 35-W is only known by six surviving examples, making this over date variety of New Jersey Coppers very scarce.

Sources:
“A Guide Book of United States Coins”, by R.S. Yeoman, Kenneth Bressett (Senior Editor)
“New Jersey State Coppers”, by Roger S. Siboni, John L. Howes and A. Buell Ish