Help with an 1806 Bust half variety.

DMWJR

Any bust half nuts know what variety this is? I don't usually collect them, but I saw this one in a coin shop and thought it was pretty neat.

stman

Give me a little time here and I'll see what I can look up in the Overton book. Right off the bat it appears to be the pointed 6 with stem. I'll see if I can attribute the Overton # as well. Warning... I'm far from an expert at this.

DMWJR

Any help would be appreciated. I don't have a copy of Overton.

stman

Any die-cracks? I can't tell where the eagle's beak comes down on the star. Does the point of beak meet the point of star? Or does it go in between points? If Nysoto was here he could probably tell you real quick what the Overton variety is. I've narrowed it down between a few die-marriages, but I'm just not sure right now. Sorry.

DMWJR

No die cracks.

The Y in LIBERTY appears to be repunched, most notably at the left foot.

The F in OF on the reverse is broken, and has no right foot.

DMWJR

There may be the beginnings of a crack across the top of the date, but hard to tell.

stman

Well like I said I'm no expert but I tried. I'm gonna GUESS either O-118 r-4.... O-123 r-4..... or O-125 r-5.

Please remember I might not even be close but from what I can see this is the best I can do. It's kind of interesting to try anyway. Good luck, and I hope I'm not way out in left field on this one. Which I very well could be.

DMWJR

Well, you're a heck of a lot closer than I am! Thanks for the research help. I owe you one!

Rittenhouse

It's 06-119. Actually pretty easy to do. Date position 18 close and 8 below 1 = obv 10. Rev leaf below right base of I, vestigial rt. foot on F, lowest berry no stem = rev O.

A better photo would have made it easier. I pulled your photo down & adjusted the color balance to make the holder white. Always make sure of your white balance when shooting Several posts on doing this.

I've found a pretty easy way of shooting blast white silver, toned silver, and copper - i.e., anything. Shoot against a white background using GE Reveal bulbs, bump the EV to .6 to 1.2 depending on color of coin, white balance at incandescent, macro at 3M pixels. Depending on toning and EV you sometimes need an 82A filter to pull out red (esp. on copper). Open the image in PhotoImpact (or Photoshop) and use Color balance to turn the background white. You shouldn't need to do much else. Here's some examples:









Before anyone asks, yes they're for sale. But they need slabbed, so you'll have to wait 'till I put them on eBay. Everybody knows that coins don't grade above VF unslabbed .

Nysoto

I can't see the reverse die cracks, but it appears to be the later die state O.119a. The ribbon on the obverse is barely struck along with the central hair detail, but the periphery is well struck, including the drapery lines. This is from from a sunken reverse die, caused by improper hardening or low carbon content of this die or?? The reverse has excessive wear in the central areas compared to the periphery from the bulge caused by the sunken die. I have a 119 with an good early strike and a 119a that is similar to yours. The reverse of the 119a is convex and will not sit flat on a hard, flat surface. Give it a try!

Obverse 10 was a workhorse used on 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, and 126. The 119 was an earlier usage, 121 was the last usage and shows poor central details from a worn die, not from a sunken die as on 119a. O.122 has about 15 known (R.6+), and 122 has 9-10 known (R.7), both are worth mega-bucks. O.119 is a scarce R.3 (201-500), but R.3's are not worth a premium.

The right base of F is missing as are all 1806's except O.104 and O.107, this was noted by M. L. Biestle in his 1929 book on halves (O.104 reverse was first used in 1805). You have a nice, interesting 1806 half.

nepbrs44

Love that 1818 BH nice work with the picture and thanks about the white.

DMWJR

Thanks so much for the information. I love the depth that one can get to in a particular series.

Thanks also for the camera advice. I'll play with it and see what happens.

Dabigkahuna

For slabbing at PCGS,

Would this be the "Large Stars/Pointed 6/With Stem" variety?

Larry
Dabigkahuna