Roached but (somewhat) Rare - 1838-O Half Dime

Omegaraptor

Was browsing Ebay last week for half dimes and saw a dark ex-jewelry coin described as 18xx-O. I recognized the reverse from somewhere, given the mintmark size. Indeed, this reverse was only used on 1838-O and a rare variety in 1839.

And the obverse… NO stars!

The BIN price on this one was… eight dollars and free shipping. So after waiting out the ebay standard envelope shipping, it arrived.

This is my heavily discounted admission to the exclusive 1838-O half dime club. It’s corroded, rim-damaged, bent, and holed, but it’s one of 70000 minted - and one of just a couple hundred left, AFAIK.

Hope you found a way to enjoy this coin.

kaz

Looks like somebody loved it enough to put it on a necklace or charm bracelet! Congrats for spotting a scarce HD !

yosclimber

Nice.
I have a holed one, too. (and an unholed one).

By the way, a Large O punch was used on:
1. 1838-O (V-1 and V-2)
2. The rare 1839-O V-1
3. The 1840-O V-1, V-8 and V-11

However, the reverse die from 1838-O is not the same as the reverses used in 1839 and 1840.

Blythe's 1992 book said they were the same, but later research (for example, Jack Marston, 2011)
with better photos showed this was not true.

These 3 reverse dies use a large O in these years:
Reverse AA. 1838-O V-1 and V-2
Reverse BB. 1839-O V-1, 1840-O V-8, 1840-O V-11
Reverse CC. 1840-O V-1

Another way to present this is:

Year	Rev AA	Rev BB	Rev CC
1838	V-1, V-2
1839		V-1
1840		V-8, V-11	V-1

The mint mark position is almost the same in all 3 reverses, but the different die cracks in high grade specimens
are the easiest way to see they are different.

If you'd like to see more details, check out the free 1839-O and 1840-O attribution guides (PDF files) on my page:
https://sites.google.com/view/clintcummins/half-dime-attribution-guide

LanceNewmanOCC

@Omegaraptor said:
This is my heavily discounted admission to the exclusive 1838-O half dime club. It’s corroded, rim-damaged, bent, and holed, but it’s one of 70000 minted - and one of just a couple hundred left, AFAIK.

Hope you found a way to enjoy this coin.

nice find and price. i like that it took work to uncover it !

jesbroken

Congrats. Hard coin to come by, regardless of condition. I've got the 1838 O No Stars LSD which was only 400k+ circulation but have not ran across the Half Dime yet at a price I could afford.
Jim

fathom

Somewhat rare is a good way to describe.

I have found that they are few and far between in certified mid-grade and higher. Few grading events both major TPGs.

Bought this in 1978. I have seen only a few nicer since then.