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New purchase: 1840 w/drapery Seated half dime
rhedden
Posts: 6,620 ✭✭✭✭✭
Bought recently from J.J. Teaparty. It was accurately graded at AU-58, and looks to me like it should slab AU-58 at PCGS without a problem. I don't often buy coins at retail prices if I can help it, but this was a much-needed upgrade for a Good-4 coin in my collection, so I parted with the $$$$. It's a really tough variety to find in upper grades, and if you check the Heritage auction archives, you'll see that there have only been a handful of them auctioned in the past 10 years. The variety without drapery at the elbow is much commoner. The thing that I like the most about this coin is that it has well-defined details in Liberty's head. Of course, my camera can't deal with little tiny coins, so the pic doesn't really show the definition. Does anyone here have a better example for this variety? Love to see a pic.
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That is truly an attractive and scarce half dime you bought, and one that is not often seen, especially in that grade. For many years, dating back at least to 1931, when Daniel W. Valentine published "The United States Half Dimes", numismatists believed that there was just one die marriage for the 1840 With Drapery half dime, designated V7. It wasn't until recent years that Mark Sheldon discovered a new die marriage, with a slightly different date placement relative to the devices above which he designated V8. I purchased an absolutely gorgeous example of the 1840 WD V8, in NGC MS-63 from board member Bill Jones at a show in Boston in June of 2002. I honestly bought it just because it was drop dead gorgeous, not for the variety. I later purchased an ANACS MS-62 example of the 1840 WD V7 (Lot #2106) in the William A. Harmon/Heritage auction sale last September, so that I would have virtual twins for those two die marriages. That coin was of additional interest because it was one of a small handfull of half dimes that Bill Harmon purchased in a small change purse in or about 1960, which started him in the life long pursuit of collecting half dimes. I had read that story long ago, and wanted to have a piece of that fascinating history. Unfortunately I am unable to post any images of my coins, and I just checked to find out that the Heritage website is down for maintenance, so I cannot even refer you to that image.
Here's the URL:
http://coins.heritagegalleries.com/common/view_image_only.php?img=http://images.heritagecoin.com/images/HNAI/300/384/384007281o.jpg
Do you know anything of the provenance of the coin you purchased from Teaparty? I ask because they were a major buyer at the ANR auction sale which included the Mark Sheldon half dime collection. That just might be the discovery coin for the 1840 WD V8. You might ask them. That coin was lot #904 of the William H. LaBelle, Sr. /ANR July 2005 auction sale.
I feel somewhat handicapped because I have a reference collection of nearly 1800 half dimes of all dates, mints and varieties, yet I do not (yet) have a digital camera to provide images to post when things like this come up. I will correct that soon.
Congratulations on a nice addition to your collection.
ps. Get a camera already man!
Thanks very much for your input on the 1840 V-8 half dime. I have a flip from the coin that I will photograph when I get home. It does have V-8 marked on it, so there is a good chance that it came from a knowledgeable collector, perhaps even from Mark Sheldon. I bet we can identify its pedigree from the writing on the flip insert.
so for me au-63