Very Rare Overdates
Nysoto
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The 1805/4 Wide Date, T-11 DS-4 has 31 known examples for the die marriage, from a research article by Bryce Brown, and is well into R-6+ rarity for the DS-4 die stage. It is considered to be the most visible of all half dollar overdates, and is the most sought-after overdate in the Draped Bust half dollar series with the massive retained cud and die break that shortened the life of the die.
The more common (actually scarce R-3) 1805/4 overdates are T-4 and T-5, with T-5 pictured here, which is from an unused 1804 working die. The T-11 overdate is from a new hub that came later in 1805, and the overdate is a correction of a blundered date.
It is surprising that 156,519 half dollars were delivered in the year 1804, from April to November, but they were all dated 1803. No genuine 1804 dated half dollars have ever been found.
The two 1806/5 overdates pictured are from two different die stages of 1806/5 T-1. This is the first of the emission order for 1806, and is an R-4 rarity for the variety and for the later die stage with two reverse cuds and retained obverse cud is probably R-7 with no more than 12 known. This is the only half dollar overdate that came from a previously used working die, it was annealed, overdated, and hardened, but failed quickly with huge die breaks.
Comments
That 5 over 4 is amazing.
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Love the 1805/4 T-11, super overdate. Other two coins are nice also.
Here is a pic of an "1804" half dollar which most likely fooled some people in the past.
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What is the counterstamp on the 1806 above and between the 8 and 0?? Really nice 5/4 coin. Cheers, RickO
Good catch, Ricko. The counterstamp is a small "H" and I don't know what it stands for, but I have seen it on one other coin.
Very neat overdates.
Rich, thanks for posting the altered 1805 T-14, I suppose it has fooled some collectors in the past, as have other alterations into fake 1804 half dollars. I don't know why the Mint delivered so many 1803 dated coins in 1804, in both half dollars and dollars, not following the 1792 Coinage Act to include "the year of the coinage;"
Images of the late die stage 1806/5 T-1, which is the only "naked eye" visible 1806/5 of the four overdate half dollar varieties in 1806. Both the obverse and reverse failed with massive die breaks, but both dies struck many coins with earlier use in 1805, the 1806 T-1 was the third usage for the obverse working die, and the fifth usage for the reverse die. The double cud reverse is extremely rare in this late stage.
