Analysis of the image of Baley's 1807 has identified numerous differences from 1807 O.104 that cannot be explained by die state. The obverse die is not the same as used on O.104, or any other 1807 obverse die.
The Long Beach inspection on June 3 will be required to verify authenticity, measure, and weigh the coin. If confirmed as O.115, this would be the first new bust half die marriage discovery since the November, 1995 discovery of 1806 O.128.
The value of a new and unique die marriage of a draped bust half dollar is $50,000 - $70,000, as estimated by an expert in the series. Not bad for a F12 draped bust half that has a value of $275 for a common die variety!
Edited to add the year on 1806 O.128
Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
Please keep us apprised. Who will do the authentication at LB? Sheridan? DWL? Dr. Petersen? I guess someone will write an article about this for the JRJ after all's said and done, right?
The inspection will take place at Sheridan Downey's table after the opening on Thursday, Steve Herrman will be there, I will fly down for the day. I wrote a six page article in the BHNC newsletter on the coin, there will be a JRJ article and additional articles in other publications, after the inspection, of course. This will be an exciting and historic numismatic event!
Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
The interesting part about this discovery is that everything has been recorded, on this thread and the "Just bought the Overton Book" thread. I do not know who will write the JRJ article yet, but it should include some of the actual quotes from the thread. PM me and I will try to get your input into the article with your name.
By contractual agreement, I cannot release the BHNC article or names. The majority of the article described the analysis done once the images of Baley's coin were transferred to the BHNC server. Some very interesting observations were made, some of these will be made public, I expect, in the JRJ article.
Good luck to Baley!
Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
If they do confirm the new variety I want a mention in the article. (with my name spelled right)
Me too!
Thanks again to all who contributed to what will, if this does end up being an important discovery, most likely to be the highlight of my numismatic experiences (it already is, so far!) Very special thanks to Bill (Nysoto) and Conder, Stman, Billboat, dorkkarl and everyone else who "guessed the grade" in this thread, as well as the BHNC membership for their in-depth analysis of the unique features of this piece.
Looking forward to meeting with Bill and Steve and Sheridan on June 3, hope to see EVP and Dennis and any and all other forum members who will be at the Long Beach show that day, there is still a bit of skepticism in some minds (mine included!) so it will be great to get the experts on these coins together for an in-person examination and comparison with the known varieties of 1807 half dollars, and hopefully (fingers crossed) the meeting will end in confirmation of the newest bust half die variety!
edit: oh, one more thing: I'll be carrying this ANACS F12 1807 O.115(?), as well as my PCGS F15 1807 O.102), in a new Slab Caddy (tm) recently bought from Russ just for the occasion!
<< <i>edit: oh, one more thing: I'll be carrying this ANACS F12 1807 O.115(?), as well as my PCGS F15 1807 O.102),.
<< <i>in a new Slab Caddy (tm) recently bought from Russ just for the occasion! >>
Hehheh.... make sure you wear the slab caddy on your belt loupe so the nerd factor takes full effect. Actually they're kinda neat I brought mine to the Vegas show. Well I brought it in my luggage. Told Russ I'd be walking down the strip in Vegas with it on.
Good luck on this half dollar find Baley. I'm rooting for ya, and even if it doesn't work out I'll bet it's still an exciting event to experience.
Please... Save The Stories, Just Answer My Questions, And Tell Me How Much!!!!!
We met at Sheridan Downey's table Thursday morning, and everyone was very excited. The coin in question was closely examined, and many reference points were checked against Overton's 104 plate coin, and several significant differences were noted, but the real, undeniable proof occurred when Bill (our own Nysoto) arrived with his PCGS XF45 1807 O.104 coin. The two coins were photographed and the same-size images were overlaid, with alignment of stars 7 and 13. Once that was done, the differences among the rest of the stars and lettering jumped right out at us, and even the most skeptical were convinced that this is in fact a newly discovered obverse die, 12, paired with a previously known reverse, B. The coin was submitted as a walk-through to NGC, who agreed to grade it and holder it as "O-115 Discovery Coin"
I'm going back to LB today to pick up the coin and speak with Coin World and Numismatic News, the coin will also be featured in the John Reich Journal in an article authored by Bill Nyberg (Nysoto) (whom it was a great pleasure to meet, along with the other great guys and professional numismatists involved)
Will write more about this later but thought those interested would enjoy an update!
Baley. allow me to be one of the first to congratulate you. This is monumental moment not only for you, but for the forum and the whole Numismatic community. Just think, if it weren't for us geeks pulling out our Overton books when you posted this and not being able to confirm, this might not have happened.
Nysoto seems like he's helped you every step of the way and I tip my hat to him. Hopefully anybody interested in Bust material pays close attention to his posts on here. I know I do. He's a walking encyclopedia on the subject. And always posts educational information, along with giving me information by the PM feature.
Baley, I see you mentioned having it slabbed and so-noted on the slab this new variety. That's great. You gonna keep the insert when it Gets broken out and put in you album?
Please... Save The Stories, Just Answer My Questions, And Tell Me How Much!!!!!
Cecil Total Copper Nutcase - African, British Ships, Channel Islands!!! 'Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup'
Fantastic Baley! Congratulations on your find! When is the CW article going to appear?
The longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice is it possible for an empire to rise without His aid? Benjamin Franklin
Baley, I could not be happier for you! What an awesome, awesome find. Monster congratulations!
And I tip my hat to the others here who helped solve this mystery, especially Nysoto. It's very cool to be able to watch things develop as they happen through the various posts here. Much more interesting that way than knowing nothing about it and then getting the whole story all at once when it's published somewhere.
Now what will be interesting is to see how quickly additional pieces are identified. That's pretty typical, isn't it? Something goes undiscovered for years and years, and once identified people start looking and find others. For your sake, though, it would be great if you have the only one. But in any case, here's one of the most heavily scrutinized and studied series of all, with serious die variety research having gone on for years and years - and yet previously unknown varieties still pop up! That's cool.
I'm very glad for you that your persistence in identifying the coin paid off big.
stman wrote:
<< <i>You gonna keep the insert when it Gets broken out and put in your album? >>
Good one!
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
This is a great event for bust half collectors, the first new die marriage discovery in over 8 years. I could not positively attribute this coin in September, but more analysis was needed to prove the new variety. Evidence to prove the new marriage was provided by a BHNC member, drawing from a published JRJ study done in 1993 on obverse dentil counts. The dentil count on Baley's O.115 is 153, while O.104 has 154 dentils. Other differences such as star measurements can be affected by die state and/or lapping, but not dentil counts. The other attribution point that helped prove the new marriage is the 7 is closer to bust, and is canted to the left relative to O.104, this is not affected by die state or wear. The inspection and overlay at Long Beach confirmed all of the observations.
In addition to Sheridan Downey, other numismatists who examined the coin included Brad Karoleff, Brian Greer, and Steve Herrman. It was a pleasure to meet Baley, and this has been the most exciting event in my years as a collector. We could not stop talking, I nearly missed my flight back to Seattle!
Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
<< <i>The dentil count on Baley's O.115 is 153, while O.104 has 154 dentils >>
Now, see, that's why these people are called "nuts". They count dentils!
How do you actually do that, anyway? I know it's easy to count reeds by rolling the coin's edge lightly in playdoh while sticking a small piece between two reeds so you know when your starting point comes back around. Do you do it from photos?
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Congrats Baley. Maybe I missed it, but why did you decide to go with NGC for the certification? And you have my permission to leave the coin in the slab!
What a fantastic story and find. I remember tossing a grade at that particular coin, being busy, and not bothering taking out my Overton book...........geesh I need to pay more attention sometimes!
Counting dentils is easy and fun. Print an enlarged image of the coin, mark the dentils out in 5 or 10 block counts with a pencil, and in 5 minutes you have the dentil count!
With regard to other O.115's being found, consider that the most similar marriage, O.104 is now considered an R.5 with 31-80 known. There may be others, but not many. Time will tell. Other O.104's checked from owners have not yielded any more examples.
Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
Thanks everyone, it has been a busy and exciting couple of days!
That must make your... month!
DAM, it sure does! This has been an awesome experience and it's great to have it documented here, which actually stretches back half a year and yesterday ends up making my eight months!
Sell it and buy some early gold!!!
Do you think I should? Do you want to maybe make some trades?
Baley. allow me to be one of the first to congratulate you. This is monumental moment not only for you, but for the forum and the whole Numismatic community. Just think, if it weren't for us geeks pulling out our Overton books when you posted this and not being able to confirm, this might not have happened
Absolutely true! Thank you Stman, you were the first to say "I'd like to attribute the coin" and things just got more and more interesting after that, it's very nice to have folks who enjoy coins to share this with, indeed the internet in general and this forum in particular made this discovery possible and credit goes to everyone who read and responded in this chain of events.
Nysoto seems like he's helped you every step of the way and I tip my hat to him. Hopefully anybody interested in Bust material pays close attention to his posts on here. I know I do. He's a walking encyclopedia on the subject. And always posts educational information, along with giving me information by the PM feature.
Bill is great and it was a pleasure meeting him, you're right he's very knowledgeable and it was his specific information about the O.104 marriage, as well his possession of a condition census example of the variety, which lead to the initial hypothesis that this might be something different. He also wrote the BHNC article, made the introductions for yesterday's meeting, and took the group pictures!
you mentioned having it slabbed and so-noted on the slab this new variety. That's great. You gonna keep the insert when it gets broken out and put in your album?
Thanks Numismanic and JrGMan2004 (I'm going to go ahead and answer everyone who responded today, since I'm pretty "up" and will be awake a while)
Wow. Congratulations. You're on quite a roll. You won my giveaway, you won another giveaway recently and now this
mgoodm3, thanks again for your icon nickel and the other 2 rolls, I've been spending a few every few days to try to pay the hobby forward and maybe sow a few seeds, but will keep the date/mm run for a while longer! Also thanks to Relayer for the proof coins, and now the O.115, they say these things come in threes so maybe that's it for a while... just the same, you never know!
thanks also to ccrdragon, JadeRareCoin, berylcoin, and pmh1nic,
When is the CW article going to appear?
Well, they didn't have a staff writer at their booth, don't know if/when they'll report the story but they seemed to think it was newsworthy so we'll see..
Ok one more and you probably knew this was coming..... "Will The Darn Thing Cross?" Oh, I see, you wanted to get it in a NGC holder first then in turn have a better chance at it crossing. Good move, you da man Baley. So will it cross?
Please... Save The Stories, Just Answer My Questions, And Tell Me How Much!!!!!
It must be really cool finding something this important.
thanks CoinAddict, got to admit that it is pretty cool, having a newly discovered type of coin that happens to be 197 years old!
I have a whole roll of those.
well, just don't unload 'em all at once! dole 'em out gradually so's we don't depress the market!
Seriously, there could very well be others. The differences are subtle and the coin looks very much like an O.104. Then again, the O.104 is a rare coin in itself, so there probably aren't dozens of O.115s.
conder101, you were a big help, I reprint here your paragraph written March 13th:
The reverse is definitely Rev B. The 1 in the date points much too low on the curl and the Y is no above the T so it can't be Obv 2. That only leaves Obv 3 but star 1 is too close to the curl, the points between stars 4 and 5 are much too far apart as are the points between stars 8&9 and 9 & 10. Finally the I is definitely lower than the L in Liberty and that isn't true on any of the obverses pictured in Overton.
you nailed several of the key diagnostics, and these are tough ones because they're subtle spatial relationships among the stars and letters, rather than something obvious like a die crack or recut letters. Nice call!
Kranky, thanks for the note, I tip my hat to the others here who helped solve this mystery, especially Nysoto. It's very cool to be able to watch things develop as they happen through the various posts here. Much more interesting that way than knowing nothing about it and then getting the whole story all at once when it's published somewhere.
I agree, Nysoto was indispensable, and having this thread that occurred in "real time" allowed everyone to be included in the learning process.
Now what will be interesting is to see how quickly additional pieces are identified. That's pretty typical, isn't it? Something goes undiscovered for years and years, and once identified people start looking and find others.
That will be fascinating. The 1995 discovery of 1806 0.128 is still unique, as is the 1993 find of 1794 O.111. On the other hand, the differences between this obv (no.12) and obv 3 (used only to strike the O.104 coins) are so subtle that most attributors wouldn't take a second look, and some of the current O.104s might really be O.115s, but you'd think that if any of them were in high grade, a collector would have noticed this before??
For your sake, though, it would be great if you have the only one.
so, this would be considered a "top pop"?!?
But in any case, here's one of the most heavily scrutinized and studied series of all, with serious die variety research having gone on for years and years - and yet previously unknown varieties still pop up! That's cool.
Comments
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
I really hope for Baley it is a new die marriage!!!!
Dennis
Like VOC Numismatics on facebook
The Long Beach inspection on June 3 will be required to verify authenticity, measure, and weigh the coin. If confirmed as O.115, this would be the first new bust half die marriage discovery since the November, 1995 discovery of 1806 O.128.
The value of a new and unique die marriage of a draped bust half dollar is $50,000 - $70,000, as estimated by an expert in the series. Not bad for a F12 draped bust half that has a value of $275 for a common die variety!
Edited to add the year on 1806 O.128
Please keep us apprised. Who will do the authentication at LB? Sheridan? DWL? Dr. Petersen? I guess someone will write an article about this for the JRJ after all's said and done, right?
EVP
How does one get a hater to stop hating?
I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com
The inspection will take place at Sheridan Downey's table after the opening on Thursday, Steve Herrman will be there, I will fly down for the day. I wrote a six page article in the BHNC newsletter on the coin, there will be a JRJ article and additional articles in other publications, after the inspection, of course. This will be an exciting and historic numismatic event!
EVP
How does one get a hater to stop hating?
I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com
I'd also like a copy of the BHNC article.
The interesting part about this discovery is that everything has been recorded, on this thread and the "Just bought the Overton Book" thread. I do not know who will write the JRJ article yet, but it should include some of the actual quotes from the thread. PM me and I will try to get your input into the article with your name.
By contractual agreement, I cannot release the BHNC article or names. The majority of the article described the analysis done once the images of Baley's coin were transferred to the BHNC server. Some very interesting observations were made, some of these will be made public, I expect, in the JRJ article.
Good luck to Baley!
Me too!
Thanks again to all who contributed to what will, if this does end up being an important discovery, most likely to be the highlight of my numismatic experiences (it already is, so far!) Very special thanks to Bill (Nysoto) and Conder, Stman, Billboat, dorkkarl and everyone else who "guessed the grade" in this thread, as well as the BHNC membership for their in-depth analysis of the unique features of this piece.
Looking forward to meeting with Bill and Steve and Sheridan on June 3, hope to see EVP and Dennis and any and all other forum members who will be at the Long Beach show that day, there is still a bit of skepticism in some minds (mine included!) so it will be great to get the experts on these coins together for an in-person examination and comparison with the known varieties of 1807 half dollars, and hopefully (fingers crossed) the meeting will end in confirmation of the newest bust half die variety!
edit: oh, one more thing: I'll be carrying this ANACS F12 1807 O.115(?), as well as my PCGS F15 1807 O.102),
in a new Slab Caddy (tm) recently bought from Russ just for the occasion!
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
gonna try to get some sleep
See you in Long Beach!
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Awake now
About to go to meet with The Experts and show them The Coin!
we'll see....
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
<< <i>edit: oh, one more thing: I'll be carrying this ANACS F12 1807 O.115(?), as well as my PCGS F15 1807 O.102),.
<< <i>in a new Slab Caddy (tm) recently bought from Russ just for the occasion! >>
Hehheh.... make sure you wear the slab caddy on your belt loupe so the nerd factor takes full effect.
Actually they're kinda neat I brought mine to the Vegas show. Well I brought it in my luggage. Told Russ I'd be walking down the strip in Vegas with it on.
Good luck on this half dollar find Baley. I'm rooting for ya, and even if it doesn't work out I'll bet it's still an exciting event to experience.
Capped Bust Half Series
Capped Bust Half Dime Series
We met at Sheridan Downey's table Thursday morning, and everyone was very excited. The coin in question was closely examined, and many reference points were checked against Overton's 104 plate coin, and several significant differences were noted, but the real, undeniable proof occurred when Bill (our own Nysoto) arrived with his PCGS XF45 1807 O.104 coin. The two coins were photographed and the same-size images were overlaid, with alignment of stars 7 and 13. Once that was done, the differences among the rest of the stars and lettering jumped right out at us, and even the most skeptical were convinced that this is in fact a newly discovered obverse die, 12, paired with a previously known reverse, B. The coin was submitted as a walk-through to NGC, who agreed to grade it and holder it as "O-115 Discovery Coin"
I'm going back to LB today to pick up the coin and speak with Coin World and Numismatic News, the coin will also be featured in the John Reich Journal in an article authored by Bill Nyberg (Nysoto) (whom it was a great pleasure to meet, along with the other great guys and professional numismatists involved)
Will write more about this later but thought those interested would enjoy an update!
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
That must make your... month!
Sell it and buy some early gold!!!
John
siliconvalleycoins.com
Nysoto seems like he's helped you every step of the way and I tip my hat to him. Hopefully anybody interested in Bust material pays close attention to his posts on here. I know I do. He's a walking encyclopedia on the subject. And always posts educational information, along with giving me information by the PM feature.
Baley, I see you mentioned having it slabbed and so-noted on the slab this new variety. That's great. You gonna keep the insert when it Gets broken out and put in you album?
U.S. Nickels Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
U.S. Dimes Complete Set with Major Varieties, Circulation Strikes
42/92
Total Copper Nutcase - African, British Ships, Channel Islands!!!
'Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup'
Magnificent! Congratulations!
Our eBay auctions - TRUE auctions: start at $0.01, no reserve, 30 day unconditional return privilege & free shipping!
BC
Capped Bust Half Series
Capped Bust Half Dime Series
Congrats!
Where did you get it eBay?
And I tip my hat to the others here who helped solve this mystery, especially Nysoto. It's very cool to be able to watch things develop as they happen through the various posts here. Much more interesting that way than knowing nothing about it and then getting the whole story all at once when it's published somewhere.
Now what will be interesting is to see how quickly additional pieces are identified. That's pretty typical, isn't it? Something goes undiscovered for years and years, and once identified people start looking and find others. For your sake, though, it would be great if you have the only one. But in any case, here's one of the most heavily scrutinized and studied series of all, with serious die variety research having gone on for years and years - and yet previously unknown varieties still pop up! That's cool.
I'm very glad for you that your persistence in identifying the coin paid off big.
stman wrote:
<< <i>You gonna keep the insert when it Gets broken out and put in your album? >>
Good one!
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
This is a great event for bust half collectors, the first new die marriage discovery in over 8 years. I could not positively attribute this coin in September, but more analysis was needed to prove the new variety. Evidence to prove the new marriage was provided by a BHNC member, drawing from a published JRJ study done in 1993 on obverse dentil counts. The dentil count on Baley's O.115 is 153, while O.104 has 154 dentils. Other differences such as star measurements can be affected by die state and/or lapping, but not dentil counts. The other attribution point that helped prove the new marriage is the 7 is closer to bust, and is canted to the left relative to O.104, this is not affected by die state or wear. The inspection and overlay at Long Beach confirmed all of the observations.
In addition to Sheridan Downey, other numismatists who examined the coin included Brad Karoleff, Brian Greer, and Steve Herrman. It was a pleasure to meet Baley, and this has been the most exciting event in my years as a collector. We could not stop talking, I nearly missed my flight back to Seattle!
<< <i>The dentil count on Baley's O.115 is 153, while O.104 has 154 dentils >>
Now, see, that's why these people are called "nuts". They count dentils!
How do you actually do that, anyway? I know it's easy to count reeds by rolling the coin's edge lightly in playdoh while sticking a small piece between two reeds so you know when your starting point comes back around. Do you do it from photos?
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
What a fantastic story and find. I remember tossing a grade at that particular coin, being busy, and not bothering taking out my Overton book...........geesh I need to pay more attention sometimes!
Congratulations Baley!
LSCC#1864
Ebay Stuff
Great discovery!
My posts viewed
since 8/1/6
Counting dentils is easy and fun. Print an enlarged image of the coin, mark the dentils out in 5 or 10 block counts with a pencil, and in 5 minutes you have the dentil count!
With regard to other O.115's being found, consider that the most similar marriage, O.104 is now considered an R.5 with 31-80 known. There may be others, but not many. Time will tell. Other O.104's checked from owners have not yielded any more examples.
What a great story!!!
John
siliconvalleycoins.com
Ray
Baley or Nysoto - was the coin weighed by chance? Was a photo taken of the edge?
Nice work, all.
I was at Tom Reynolds's table on Thursday when I heard of the discovery.......
That must make your... month!
DAM, it sure does! This has been an awesome experience and it's great to have it documented here, which actually stretches back half a year and yesterday ends up making my eight months!
Sell it and buy some early gold!!!
Do you think I should? Do you want to maybe make some trades?
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Absolutely true! Thank you Stman, you were the first to say "I'd like to attribute the coin" and things just got more and more interesting after that, it's very nice to have folks who enjoy coins to share this with, indeed the internet in general and this forum in particular made this discovery possible and credit goes to everyone who read and responded in this chain of events.
Nysoto seems like he's helped you every step of the way and I tip my hat to him. Hopefully anybody interested in Bust material pays close attention to his posts on here. I know I do. He's a walking encyclopedia on the subject. And always posts educational information, along with giving me information by the PM feature.
Bill is great and it was a pleasure meeting him, you're right he's very knowledgeable and it was his specific information about the O.104 marriage, as well his possession of a condition census example of the variety, which lead to the initial hypothesis that this might be something different. He also wrote the BHNC article, made the introductions for yesterday's meeting, and took the group pictures!
you mentioned having it slabbed and so-noted on the slab this new variety. That's great. You gonna keep the insert when it gets broken out and put in your album?
yup!
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Wow. Congratulations. You're on quite a roll. You won my giveaway, you won another giveaway recently and now this
mgoodm3, thanks again for your icon nickel and the other 2 rolls, I've been spending a few every few days to try to pay the hobby forward and maybe sow a few seeds, but will keep the date/mm run for a while longer! Also thanks to Relayer for the proof coins, and now the O.115, they say these things come in threes so maybe that's it for a while... just the same, you never know!
thanks also to ccrdragon, JadeRareCoin, berylcoin, and pmh1nic,
When is the CW article going to appear?
Well, they didn't have a staff writer at their booth, don't know if/when they'll report the story but they seemed to think it was newsworthy so we'll see..
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
thanks CoinAddict, got to admit that it is pretty cool,
having a newly discovered type of coin that happens to be 197 years old!
I have a whole roll of those.
well, just don't unload 'em all at once! dole 'em out gradually so's we don't depress the market!
Seriously, there could very well be others. The differences are subtle and the coin looks very much like an O.104. Then again, the O.104 is a rare coin in itself, so there probably aren't dozens of O.115s.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
The reverse is definitely Rev B. The 1 in the date points much too low on the curl and the Y is no above the T so it can't be Obv 2. That only leaves Obv 3 but star 1 is too close to the curl, the points between stars 4 and 5 are much too far apart as are the points between stars 8&9 and 9 & 10. Finally the I is definitely lower than the L in Liberty and that isn't true on any of the obverses pictured in Overton.
you nailed several of the key diagnostics, and these are tough ones because they're subtle spatial relationships among the stars and letters, rather than something obvious like a die crack or recut letters. Nice call!
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
I tip my hat to the others here who helped solve this mystery, especially Nysoto. It's very cool to be able to watch things develop as they happen through the various posts here. Much more interesting that way than knowing nothing about it and then getting the whole story all at once when it's published somewhere.
I agree, Nysoto was indispensable, and having this thread that occurred in "real time" allowed everyone to be included in the learning process.
Now what will be interesting is to see how quickly additional pieces are identified. That's pretty typical, isn't it? Something goes undiscovered for years and years, and once identified people start looking and find others.
That will be fascinating. The 1995 discovery of 1806 0.128 is still unique, as is the 1993 find of 1794 O.111. On the other hand, the differences between this obv (no.12) and obv 3 (used only to strike the O.104 coins) are so subtle that most attributors wouldn't take a second look, and some of the current O.104s might really be O.115s, but you'd think that if any of them were in high grade, a collector would have noticed this before??
For your sake, though, it would be great if you have the only one.
so, this would be considered a "top pop"?!?
But in any case, here's one of the most heavily scrutinized and studied series of all, with serious die variety research having gone on for years and years - and yet previously unknown varieties still pop up! That's cool.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Hopefully I will make such a find someday.....
Congrats again,
Dennis
Like VOC Numismatics on facebook