| Most experts believe that somewhere between 14 and 24 original cents struck for the Confederate States of America (CSA) are known to exist today. The original dies were designed and made by Robert Lovett. One hundred years later, Robert Bashlow had August C. Frank & Co. make transfer dies from the original confederate cent dies, which has since been partially defaced. Those transfer dies were then used to create various restrikes of the CSA Cent in various metal compositions. This beautiful copper bar was also struck at that time and with the deep impressions from the dies it does the best job of showing off the CSA cent designs. The bar is rectangular in shape measuring approximately 3 inches by 1.5 inches and is approximately 13/16 inches thick. The copper bar weighs approximately 568 grams or approximately 20 ounces. The impressions from the obverse and reverse dies are relatively deep, nearly 1/4 of an inch in to the surface of the copper bar allowing the designs to be fully struck with strong detail. The bottom side of the bar has a small impression of a screw press and the words “AUG. C. FRANK” “PHILA.” The bar is also numbered on the bottom side in the lower left corner as number 48. It is not clear how many of these bars were produced, but they do not come to market often. Please note that modern copies of this bar without these reverse markings are known to exist. The bar is mostly a medium brown color, but there is some original red and red-brown color remaining, especially on the impressions themselves which have been better protected from handling over the years. A wonderful example of the CSA Cent restrike in an impressive copper bar.
Because of the difficulty in capturing the overall look of the coin in a single image, I have also included a short high-definition video of the coin towards the bottom of this listing in an attempt to give you a better idea of what this coin will look like in hand. Please note that you may need to adjust the video quality to 1080p and may need to increase the size of the video to full screen in order to see the coin in maximum detail. |
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