1858-O V-9 Half Dime - a couple new die states

epc

As some of you are surely aware, @yosclimber is creating guides to the die pairs and notable die states of the Liberty Seated Half Dimes. In his 1858-O guide, one of the die pairs is presented in two states, V-9 and V-9a. They are distinguished primarily by a die crack going up from Liberty's forehead, and significant reverse cracking is worse in the later state.

I have an example of the V-9a, shown below, that matches the guide's description. I recently acquired another example, also shown below, but in a later die state. It has additional reverse cracks, e.g., from U to a denticle, and through E1. It also has clash marks from the obverse base running from A1 to OF. That base clash indicates small die rotation at the time of the clash, consistent with that of the newly acquired coin itself (and similar to that of my V-9a). The additional cracks indicate that this coin is in a later state than the V-9a as described in the guide.

This coin has additional interesting features. There is another set of reverse clash marks: the rock and base appear from the berry under N through ITE and into a leaf under D1; date digits, especially the 8 at the left foot of S1; and stars 1-4 are apparent from UN to the left ribbon. The orientation of these clash marks indicates ~50 degree clockwise die rotation. [That is, the reverse of a struck coin would appear rotated clockwise from the proper orientation.] Thus, at some point between strikings of these two coins, the die orientation changed dramatically, and then changed back. Presumably, there are coins yet to be found that were struck with the large die rotation, possibly both before and after the clash.

Note that I do my photos so that the obverse is 'rectified', with horizontal defined as a line connecting the centers of stars 1 and 13, and the reverse image shows the relative die rotation.

Alan

V-9a

The new coin

Coinosaurus

Nice sleuthing!

johnny9434

the die crack on the reverse is nice to see, jmo

RobertScotLover

Excellent detective work