Owner Comments:
Pictured above is a 1787 Small Head Right Connecticut Copper graded AU 53 by PCGS. A mere five obverses in the extensive 1787 series display an effigy facing right. The coin is designated Miller 1.1-A. The 1.1 obverse was also coupled with: the VV reverse, a very rare die combination, of which only about 12 examples are known; and was used on the 1788 Miller 1.I, that features a Connecticut obverse muling with a Vermont reverse.
This relatively common variety, popular with type and variety specialists, exhibits an obverse bust whose lower shoulder is unusually concave. The planchets employed for this variety are typically small, light-weight, and crude. The centers of these pieces are often weakly struck on the reverse, with notable roughness. The reverse shows a split legend with "ETLIB" to the left, and "Inde" to the right, the only such configuration among Connecticut coppers.
Walter Breen has linked this variety to the illicit Machin Mills minting operation in Newburgh, New York.
Only one small bust right specimen has been graded mint state by the two major grading services - i.e. a MS 62 example by NGC.