Top 100 Seated Half Dime Varieties - List and 112 page PDF

yosclimber

In the April 2020 E-Gobrecht Journal (http://www.lsccweb.org/183-E-Gobrecht-Volume16-Issue4.pdf),
Dale Miller and I published a proposed list of the Top 100 Seated Half Dime Varieties.
There is an accompanying (free) 112 page PDF with one page for each variety with color plate photos, on the attribution guide page:
https://sites.google.com/view/clintcummins/half-dime-attribution-guide
The table of contents in the first 3 pages includes all 100, plus an extra 8 which are "Great but Too Rare for the Top 100".
Once you download the PDF, you can click on a blue underlined link in the table of contents to jump to the page for the variety.
If you have a wide computer monitor, you can zoom in to about 200% while viewing the PDF and see excellent detail in the plate photos.

The web page above also contains a small Excel file which you can download if you like using Excel to keep track of coins you have in the list.
A second sheet in the Excel file describes some of the criteria used to form the list.

Thanks to Dale for initiating this project, and to our friends Alan and Ken for their help.
More work remains to be done, such as estimating the rarity for about half of the varieties.
This will happen eventually as guides for each date - mintmark are completed.
In the meantime, the list and PDF should give people who are less familiar with half dime varieties a look
at many of the more dramatic varieties which are out there to be found.

• Clint

Here's a sample page from the PDF.

ms70

What an enormous undertaking! So much fabulous info to jump into. Thanks to all of you for all the hard work on this.

oih82w8

Thank you Clint! @yosclimber

I really hope that our host uses this valuable resource. @HeatherBoyd

yosclimber

@btcollects said:
this is great! thanks for freely sharing this labor of love

Thanks.

It was all built on the free sharing of photos online (and the work done to make that possible).

I just counted - 48 of the top 100 plate photos are from PCGS CoinFacts.
Thanks to Phil @PCGSPhoto for his great work, and to PCGS for making this great resource available for free,
and for granting permission to me to use them in the half dime guide.

Most of the remaining plate photos are from Heritage - another great free resource which promotes collecting.

I watermark every photo with the source, so that readers will see who did the work that made this possible.

KindaNewish

This is an awesome accomplishment, thank you for sharing it.
,I spent the last few hours just flipping through it. Saved, and I will refer to it often.

Good job!

messydesk

Thanks for sharing. I updated the link on my online attribution resource page.

Timbuk3

Does this count ?

jesbroken

Thanks yosclimber.
Jim

yosclimber

@Timbuk3 said:
Does this count ?

(photo provided courtesy of PCGS)
Yes, the 1845 V-5 RPD 1845 NW (aka FS-302) is #40 on the list.

HalfDimeDude

Wow great data to resource, thanks for posting .

jesbroken

Great resource, Clint. Thank you.
Jim

HalfDimeDude

HalfDimeDude

Wow thank you for sharing this information, its some of the better reference available I know of.
I do have a few hard copy references most now out of print, not having a web site like other series I find this as a major find of a lot of information.
If I can assist at any time to contribute or help in any way please ask.
Regards H~10 dude.

ricko

@yosclimber.... Thanks for a great resource and thanks for the hard work that went into providing such a reference tool to the forum. Cheers, RickO

Eldorado9

@yosclimber An amazing study of half dimes! Congrats buddy......Well done!

chesterb

I’ve been following your work and it has been amazing! Thank you for everything you’ve done. My only question is why 100? That seems like a lot for this series that ended in 1873. Has there been any discussion to pare that down in subsequent updates?

HalfDimeDude

@chesterb said:
I’ve been following your work and it has been amazing! Thank you for everything you’ve done. My only question is why 100? That seems like a lot for this series that ended in 1873. Has there been any discussion to pare that down in subsequent updates?

There are quite a few varieties in the series some dates have more than 1 variety some 2 on the same coin.... As a h~10 collector myself there are still some to be found as all possible die marriges may be unaccounted for....at this time.
As an example shield nickels series believe it or not there's still more varieties un attributed then have been.
Back to H~10s series i have found coins with unexplained marks on them artifacts as such are the key pups to id die marriages.
Also the records....some years there are spot on paperwork to confirm how many dies were used. Other dates theres no such records .
What makes his work so important is there isnt a lot of reference information, like other series ,example IHC theres several web sites,as well many books to refer, Clint has truly has made a huge difference for those of us who do collect them . I am still amazed myself as a new member here and the wealth of reference information he's given me.

Jimnight

Nice to know and very simple to use.

Thank you.

yosclimber

@chesterb said:
I’ve been following your work and it has been amazing! Thank you for everything you’ve done. My only question is why 100? That seems like a lot for this series that ended in 1873. Has there been any discussion to pare that down in subsequent updates?

Good question.
It was mainly because 100 is a "round" number and other denominations have a Top 100 variety list:

• Morgan Dollar Top 100 VAMs
• Top 100 Liberty Seated Dimes and Half Dollars, at Gerry Fortin's Open Set Registry:
  https://www.seateddimevarieties.com/openregistry/index.php
  For Seated Quarters, a Top 25 list was chosen instead, at least partly to make it easier to complete.

In the future the plan is to include the Top 100 list in the above Open Set Registry. To do that will require better estimates of the rarity of each variety. We also hope to add shorter specialized lists, like Top 25 Die Cracks, Top 25 Cuds, Top 25 RPDs, Top 25 Rotated Reverses, etc. And an Ultimate Set of 600 or so die varieties!

My advice if you are concerned about completion is to pick a lower target, like obtaining 25 or 50 from the Top 100.

We wrote an article on how we came up with the list, in the April 2020 E-Gobrecht Journal:

---

Proposing a Major Variety List for Liberty Seated Half Dimes
Dale Miller and Clint Cummins, April 2020

There are substantial variety lists for seated dimes, quarters, and half dollars. However, there does not appear
to be an extensive list for seated half dimes, even though that series has numerous and very different interesting
varieties. Our hope is that this article will provide impetus for creation of such a list that would gain acceptance
and considerable usage in the collecting community.

We emphasize that the list provided with this article is only a very early draft. Our reason for presenting
this list through the E-Gobrecht is to provide an opportunity for other collectors to comment on the general concepts
behind the construction of this list and the inclusion or exclusion of particular entries.
In preparing this article, we consulted with some additional collectors who are very knowledgeable about
seated half dimes. Ken Seholm, and Alan Welty were particularly helpful. This list reflects all of the information
received so far.

In creating a list like this, it is wise to start with larger conceptual issues. In looking at various lists of seated
and bust varieties shown on Gerry Fortin’s Open Registry, we see them compiled in various ways. Some are major
variety sets, which include the most prominent and striking varieties, but not all varieties. Entries in these major
variety sets may include a particular feature, such as mintmark size, which may be present in several die pairings for
the particular date and mintmark. However, they may also include specific die pairings or particular die states within
a particular die pairing.

Then, there are complete variety sets, which include all known varieties, down to the level of all specific die
states. These sets are seen in the bust coinage, where the series runs are shorter and the total number of entries is
lower. For bust coinage in the Open Registry, these are labeled as ultimate sets. However, for seated dimes, the
term “ultimate set” is used differently. Here, the set includes significantly more varieties than the “Top 100” set,
and it includes at least one entry for every date and mintmark, but it only includes about 15% of all identified seated
dime varieties.

In some lists, the entries are mutually exclusive, meaning that any given coin will fit at most one slot. Other
lists include some entries that are fairly broad, such as a particular mint-mark size found in several die varieties,
followed by one or more entries that are limited to a very specific die variety or die state. The various sets also differ
as to whether proofs are included.

The lists also vary as to whether any effort is made to control difficulty level. Some lists contain all the
most distinctive varieties, regardless of difficulty level, while in other lists, varieties that are exceedingly rare are not
included. It is important to note that some varieties, initially thought to be extremely rare, have since been determined
to be more available, as more examples have been discovered. In excluding items due to difficulty, it is best
to exclude varieties that have been known for a long time, providing sufficient data to get a good understanding of
the rarity level.

The list presented here is conceptualized as a major variety list. It is designed to include the most important
and distinctive varieties but not include those that are more arcane, subtle, or difficult to attribute. In
particular, only the most visible and prominent of the many available repunched date varieties are included.
This list does not reach to the level of an “ultimate set” in either of the ways in which that term has been
used, in that the list includes only the most prominent varieties and does not include at least one entry for every
date and mintmark.

The entries are not mutually exclusive. For example, there is an entry for any 1840-O with no drapery,
and then specific entries for mint-mark sizes and the transitional variety. There is nothing magical about the
number 100 for the number of entries. However, early drafts came close to that number, so we adjusted the
list to provide exactly 100.

We created a list that spans a wide range of difficulty, but we did deliberately exclude the very rarest
items. For example, the 1843 proof with the triple punched date was not included since, typical of pre-1858
proofs, only about three are known, and they are five figure coins. The draft list of 100 varieties is appended
with a list of 8 items that are significant varieties but considered too rare to be on this list.

Attention was given to including as many different kinds of interesting varieties as possible in the list.
For example, we included the 1848 V-9, for which the distinctive feature is its date position.

UncleDano

Great resource, thanks for posting!