Capped Bust Half Dime Attribution Challenge - November 2025

Bikergeek

If you haven't tried previous challenges, I'm asking folks to try this one. Trying to get you to beta-test my Attributor!

Hi friends! This is the first challenge I've done in a while. The present coin is to illustrate the importance of fast and accurate attribution if you're trying to build a tough set. The challenge is to identify the Logan-McCloskey (LM) variety (i.e., die marriage or remarriage) for this half dime.

A die marriage is a unique pairing of one obverse die with one reverse die. Marriages are identified by LM-n where n is the marriage identifier (e.g., LM-11). If one die was "unfaithful" and was paired with another die where it incurred some kind of deterioration (cracks, chips, etc) and then the original pair was reunited, it's recognized as a remarriage. The LM name adds a decimal number: "LM-n.y" shows the number of the remarriage in the y position (e.g., LM-13.2).

I'd love your feedback on this new Attribution tool. Post below, or message me privately. https://groovycoins.com/attribution.

jacrispies

Using only your website, I have the result of LM 3.-.

I love the idea of an attribution website. The old one on Weebly I've messed up too many times and since I've gone back to the book.

Bikergeek

@jacrispies said:
Using only your website, I have the result of LM 3.-.

I love the idea of an attribution website. The old one on Weebly I've messed up too many times and since I've gone back to the book.

Ah, Wes moved the weebly version back to a named site: http://www.everythinghalfdimes.com/

It's rich with images and I may ask Wes if he wants to go in cahoots on some of that. For attribution, though, the interactive method lets me do reverse and obverse side-by-side, and in fact I usually do reverse first.

So - you got as far as "3.x" - but did you click on the button by the reverse to get to the flowchart? That might help you get to the finish line...

Either way - thanks for giving it a go, my friend!

jesbroken

Very Rare R-7 or 6 LM-3.5 obv 2, rev T. This one kind of obvious, so I went back and went thru your website and it is in depth and I feel I will use it to verify my thought before commiting. Great job and I know how much work you had to put into this. Congrats and thank you.
Jim

PS. I had chosen an 1829 and after using your website, I backed out. Thank you.

jacrispies

Great work with development so far. I think this format is fairly speedy and will bear fruit with saving time. Personal opinion, adding photos of each attribute alongside the description could be very helpful. I'm a picture book kind of guy, and it is much quicker to photo match than wordy match, for me at least.

I'll bookmark the site and will continue to test this! Thank you for sharing it with us

yosclimber

I reached LM-3.5 using your attribution tool,

First I looked at your partly enlarged photo for any major die cracks or filled elements.
I saw the upper loops of S1 and S2 are filled, and there is a cud starting or present at UNIT.

So I clicked on:
S/T: Upper Loop of S1 Filled
and
P/T/W: Upper Loop of S2 Filled or Chip
The above selected Rev T.

This showed the known Obverses for Rev T as Obverses 1 and 2.
The Obv 1 markers like
1: Last 3 high
1: 83 distant
were not present.
But
2: Chip in upper right of lower loop of 8
was present, so I clicked it.
This yielded LM-3.x .

I then clicked on the [Rev T Model] button to determine the remarriage.
I could see there is a cud starting or present in UNIT, but I don't know precisely how cud is defined here.
I finally found this in the die state markers for LM-3.5:
"DC rim through D to top of scroll".
I can see this in your full size photo, so I concluded LM-3.5.

I like the attribution tool design - nice work!

One suggestion for the Rev T Model page is to align the text better or use a line or color to show
which die markers are new, relative to the prior die marriage.
When comparing LM-3.4 and LM-3.5, the text box for LM-3.5 is wider, so the text is not aligned with LM-3.4,
which makes it harder to see which die markers are new in LM-3.5. Also the marker "DC right wing through arrows to rim" is out of order in LM-3.5. This makes it harder to see where the new markers for LM-3.5 start.

Also in the Rev T Model page, the notation "S1 and S2 filled" is used. This is slightly confusing, because only the upper loops are filled. Maybe OK, given that the lower loops don't get filled in Rev T. But it could be written compactly as "S1 and S2 ULs filled."

Barndog

I have not seen similar 1833 LM-3.5 half dimes. The “early” state is very cool!

jesbroken

Wow. Absolutely great work, Sean. After the Zoom conference, I now am far better able to utilize this supberb software. Much of your talk was over my head, but that was just the software creation part. thanks again. Great luck moving forward. Hope everyone interested in half dimes utilizes your work.
Jim

Cladiator

I'd love your feedback on this new Attribution tool. Post below, or message me privately.

Bikergeek

With gratitude to @yosclimber I have a new page to help identify remarriages: https://groovycoins.com/remarriage-finder.jsp

There are three "cards" in a carousel format, and you can arrow left or right through them by Die Marriage (for the 20 marriages that have remarriages in the series) or by Reverse (reverse dies used in remarriages - although it includes intermediate steps with un-re-married dies just for continuity's sake).

Red highlights are the deltas between a given card and its predecessor, to show what changed. Rarity in upper left corner, "Nth" usage of the reverse die is shown in upper right. When looking at a given marriage, the "Nth" usage will skip some numbers... but when looking at a given reverse, it will not skip any numbers, since it shows all users of the die.
Current look is liable to change as I monkey with it:

jesbroken

Very nice look.
Jim