ROSA AMERICANA 1733 TWOPENCE IMAGES AND COPIES

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 18, 2025, Article 9

Ernie Nagy submitted this article on the images and copies of the rare 1733 Rosa Americana Twopence. Thank you! -Editor

Was the 1861 Robinson copy of the 1733 Rosa Americana Twopence based on an 1859 American Numismatical Manual Plate?

During the April, 2025 Ann Arbor Area Coin Club Zoom meeting, Lev Linkner gave a presentation which included the 1861 Robinson copy of the 1733 Rosa Americana Twopence. He compared the Robinson copy to the fabled original coin. Using the Stack's Bowers 2018 auction of the Parmelee-Garrett 1733 Pattern Rosa Americana Twopence, both the original and copy could be said to fit the description: obverse "Bust of George II to left with legend GEORGIUS II.D.G.REX.; reverse A rose, full face, surmounted by a crown, with the legend ROSA.AMERICANA 1733, and scroll below Inscribed UTILE DULCI" as it was described by J. Doyle DeWitt in his 1968 monograph Alfred S. Robinson: Hartford Numismatist. However, otherwise, they are quite different. Robinson's copy depicts a straight alignment of George II's forehead and nose, where the original is angled. The original coin's cheek and cheekbone are curvaceous, the copy flat. The reverse rose aims slightly right, the copy straight forward. Did Robinson, or Joseph Merriam, who cut the dies, have the coin in hand? Afterall, it was one of the great rarities of American numismatics, even in those days.

Having a coin club meeting over Zoom has the disadvantage of not being able to rub elbows. Only screen images, not actual coins or medals, can be shown. Perhaps these drawbacks are offset by avoiding travel from remote locations, or by members, in their homes, having access to their collections and libraries in order to add to the discussion. In this instance one member, on a lark, pulled his edition of Montroville Dickeson's 1859 American Numismatical Manual from a nearby shelf. Whatever shortcomings Dickeson's early manual may have, the color plates are beautiful. There, on plate VII, image 4, is an interesting clue. The 1861 copy is noticeably more similar to the Dickeson plate than to the original coin! During the meeting we hypothesized that Robinson and Merriam based the 1861 copy on the 1859 Dickeson Plate. Afterward, digging through descriptions of the Robinson copy, at least those published in the last 100 years, it appears modern authors (since 1870) have missed a possible connection between Robinson and Dickeson.

"The embellishments and illustrations in this work, by Rosenthal Brothers, of Philadelphia, are, of themselves, sufficient encomium upon their taste and skill as lithographers. I cannot, however, forego the expression of my personal appreciation of, and indebtedness to them for, the zeal with which they entered into the work, and prosecuted it to completion — evidencing not only pre-eminence in their art, but a corresponding interest in whatever is useful or beautiful."

Regarding the description and illustration of the Rosa Americana Twopence Dickeson states: "…the penny (sic, obviously referring to the twopence) piece of 1733, which we have described" was based on "a fac-simile … indebted to Snelling and Ruding, who derived it from the cabinet of Thomas Hollis, Esq., whose collection was sold at auction in London, on May 18th, 1817."

The Snelling and Ruding May 18th, 1817 auction catalog, mentioned by Dickeson, has not been located, but an even earlier Thomas Snelling 1769 catalog contains a sketch of the 1733 Rosa Americana Twopence. A detail of that coin is included below. The angle of the forehead and nose, shape of the cheek, and direction of the rose depicted on Snelling's 1769 illustration bears more resemblance to the 1733 coin than the 1859 Dickeson/Rosenthal plate. (The Snelling portrait of George II has noticeably larger nostrils than either the coin or other depictions.)

And yet another drawing of the 1733 Rosa American Twopence was published in the April, 1870 American Journal of Numismatics. The Journal reported: "Happening to possess, among the properties of our editorial bureau, a wood-cut of the rare Rosa Americana of 1733, we offer an impression of it to our readers as a parting gift." The ‘parting gift' marked the occasion when ‘the proprietorship of their publication" passed from New York to Boston. The wood-cut, although not a perfect copy, resembles the original coin more than does Rosenthal/Dickeson lithograph. The text accompanying the image printed in the Journal of Numismatics includes excerpts from Dickeson's Manual. Also documented is that "The block from which our impression is taken was formerly owned by (Thomas Hollis, Esq.)" The Journal also observed that "There is found in cabinets a struck copy of this piece, rather poorly executed, published originally by Alfred S. Robinson… ." The American Journal of Numismatics concludes by quoting a description of a Woodward auction lot described as "Copy of Dickeson's imaginary Rosa Americana penny, 1733." The Robinson copy referred to can be found in Woodwards's December 19, 1865 catalogue under a subheading Fabrications, Struck Copies. &c (lot 2372).

Apparently, the tie between the Robinson copy of the 1733 Rosa Americana Twopence and the Dickeson plate is not a new discovery. However, it appears to have been forgotten in numismatic discussions since 1870. After all these years, it might be worthwhile to mention it again.

Plate VII of Dickeson's American Numismatical Manual, following page 80 https://archive.org/details/amerinumismanual1859montro/page/n115/mode/2up?view=theater

Thomas Snelling, Miscellaneous Views of the Coins Struck by English Princes in France, Counterfeit Sterlings, Coins Struck by the East India Company, and in the West India Colonies and in the Isle of Man. Also, of Pattern Pieces for Gold and Silver Coins. And Gold Nobles Struck Abroad in Imitation of English. With Copper Plates (London: 1769) Page 40 (n303)
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_12AGAAAAQAAJ/page/n303/mode/2up?q=rosa

American Journal of Numismatics, and Bulletin of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society, Vol. 4, No. 12 (April, 1870), pages 89 - 90
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43587030?seq=1

Montroville Wilson Dickeson, The American Numismatical Manual of the Currency or Money of the Aborigines. And Colonial, State and United States Coins with Historical and Descriptive Notices of Each Coin or Series, (New York: J. B. Lippincott & Co, 1859), 18th page of file front end material
https://archive.org/details/amerinumismanual1859montro/page/n17/mode/2up?q=Rosenthal

American Journal of Numismatics, and Bulletin of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society, Vol. 4, No. 12 (April, 1870), pp. 89-90;
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43587030?seq=1

Catalogue of American Coins, Medals, &C. Selected from the Cabinets of Messrs. Bach, [Sic] Bertsch, Colburn, Emery, Finotti, Ilsley, Levick, Lilliendahl, Lightbody, Mccoy, Semple, Shurtleff, and Other Collections, Purchased at Various Times, by W. Elliot Woodward, of Roxbury, Mass. Also, a Few Fine Foreign Coins and Medals.
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=29&AuctionId=511187&page=105