Owner Comments:
Pictured above is a late die state 1787 "Mutton Head" mailed bust right Connecticut copper graded VF 35 by NGC. The term mutton head, which has come to connote a dull or stupid person, was used by Sylvester S. Crosby as early as 1875 in his classical reference work. The piece has alternatively been known as a Bradford Head, Bull's Head (by Dickeson), or the Topless Liberty Variety, and has long been a favorite of collectors of Confederation Period state issues. This coin, which is relatively plentiful, carries the Miller designation 1.2C. (There is also a reverse mm variation). Distinctive features of this copper include: Its unusually large obverse head (the biggest of any produced with the 1787 date); Its prominent bare-breasted depiction of Liberty on the reverse; and the weak date, peripheral legends, and devices resulting from excessive lapping - i.e. substantial re-grinding was performed on the original dies to make them shallower, and thereby to artificially simulate wear. It was hoped that by doing so, the light-weight, sometimes intentionally porous counterfeits would more readily be accepted into commerce. Their worn appearance may also have served to mask their point of origin.
The Mutton Head variety is generally recognized to be a contemporary counterfeit, not coined at the state authorized mint, but rather at some 18th century private illegal mint. Gary Trudgen has attributed the dies to John Bailey of New York City, based on the similarity in punches to those used in the production of the Nova Eborac series.
Some counterfeiting entrepreneurs may have been emboldened in their illicit activities by the fact that Connecticut coppers never carried a legal tender status. Since the coins were therefor created merely as a convenience to facilitate commerce, the perpetrators
might have rationalized that no laws were being broken when they were struck at a maverick mint.