Early Dollars and Adjustment Marks

jmp81

In your collections of Early Dollars, do you collect the ones with adjustment marks? Would you rather have one with less detail than have one with more detail but has adjustment marks? What kind of adjustment marks are acceptable in your collection?

tjkillian

Currently I have no coins with adjustment marks. I would like to have at least one with some ajustment marks, but generally I would think that I would prefer not to have them.

Tom

Gemini

Damage is damage even if it was Mint caused but I would prefer an edge adjustment or reverse side adjustment to the eagle rather than across Miss Liberties pretty face.

jmp81

I agree. I was looking at a 1797(small eagle) that seemed to be a vf30-35( I am still learning about Early Dollars) and had excellent detail on the obverse but had some awful adjustment marks across the eagle's wings. The marks really destroyed the coin for me. I really loved the obverse. Still may buy it if the dealer will bargain.

ANACONDA

Avoid coins with serious adjustment marks* on the face.

Some unscrupulous dealers will say "they're mint made, all collectors know that, and they don't mind them at all." Not true. But how many times do you run into a collector of early bust dollars to give you the straight skinny? That's why this board and going to coin shows can be so helpful.

*some adjustment marks are extremely faint - it's the remnants of a really bad adjustment mark that almost got minted out. Use your common sense - visual impact is the key

EVillageProwler

I prefer my ED's not to have serious adjustment marks. (Faint ones and non-obtrusive ones won't bother me.) However, I will always make allowances for imperfections given how rare the variety is or how otherwise eye appealing the coin is to me.

EVP

cardinal

I concur with EVP. Weight adjustment of planchets was a normal practice at the early Mint, and so I don't think their presence on a coin makes it ENTIRELY undesirable. However, like post-striking handling marks, the location of the adjustment marks and their severity can seriously affect the eye-appeal of the coin.

If the adjustment marks are not in prominent locations (say, if they're confined to the rims or hidden in Liberty's hair detail) or they are very light, I don't think they impact the eye appeal too much. However, if the adjustment marks are particularly heavy, or they're right across Liberty's face, they will certainly detract from the coin and make it significantly less desirable than an equivalent specimen without the marks.

When you are collecting early dollars as part of a type set, and you only need one of each type, it's easy enough to find ones without adjustment marks. However, if you're assembling a more complete set of early dollars and you NEED certain rarer varieties in your set, you have to evaluate the availability of coins without the adjustment marks. You may find a specimen of the variety you need, but it has adjustment marks. Do you pass it up and wait for one without the marks? My advice would be if the variety is an R4 or less in rarity, wait for the better one. But if you're looking at an R6 or rarer variety, that better one may never come along.