Bizarre Seated Half dime Variety- Info. Needed
rhedden
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I recently purchased a box full of Seated half dimes (lucky me), and several interesting varieties were included. One of them is an 1853-O with Arrows, and the right arrow seems to be punched over something else, perhaps an "o" mintmark. In addition, the "3" in the date may be slightly recut. The microscope photo below shows the suspected error.
1853-O Seated half dime
I don't have Breen's book in front of me, so maybe someone who does could tell me whether it's a recognized variety?
This is pure speculation, but perhaps a mint employee preparing the dies may have gone to punch the arrows next to the date, and used an "o" mintmark punch by accident. After realizing his mistake, he would have punched the arrow over the "o" to conceal the blunder. One other less interesting possibility is that it is an off-center clashed die error. If someone could shoot down either of these theories, I'd be pleased to hear your explanation of how this coin came to exist.
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Comments
Seems not to be a rare piece.
According to his book it's found with a die crack off the 1 in the date. If your's doesn't have the crack, it may be an early die state.
Ray
Very interesting piece! My non-expert theory is the O was punched there by accident & covered by the arrow. If it was a die clash
the O should be incuse, not raised, & not to mention an extreme rotation.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Do you have a pic of the entire piece, front & back?
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Breen doesn't have much to say about the 1853-O half dime. Arrow and date position vary, and there were 18 obverse dies used.
One specific variety mentioned is the "obviously recut 3"; that one had a die break develop from 1 to border. You need a way to overlay the photos of the mintmark at the same scale with that photo to see if it matches in size.
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.