Capped Bust 1/2 Dollar - Lettered Edge Question

Preussen

I'm primarily a darksider, but I'm also working on a 7070 type set. I just cracked this one out of its slab (NGC AU58) for the album. My question is - how common is it for the edge lettering to be incomplete? Mine says " FIFTY CENTS OR A (blank) DOLLAR"

Thanks. -Preussen

Dawg144

Looks like you might have a guido there.

I see some flattening at 10 o'clock and 4 o'clock on the obverse, which would be consistent with the piece being a guido.

lordmarcovan

Edge lettering errors happened, and they are not uncommon overall.

But as to which are worth a premium, and how much, and so on, I will leave that answer to the specialists. One of the ones I bought recently on eBay was touted as an "edge error" but there were no pics of the edge or further description, so we shall see what it turns out to be.

So you are missing a word, there, and I take it there is no corresponding flatness to the area to indicate any kind of rim bruise, right?

A rim bruise severe enough to obliterate a whole word from the lettered edge would likely be very visible in those pics, anyway, so that's probably not the issue- I just had to ask.

Preussen

Thanks! The missing word corresponds with the flattening @ 10:00. "Guido," huh I like it anyway. It looks great in my Dansco -Preussen

Preussen

<< <i>So you are missing a word, there, and I take it there is no corresponding flatness to the area to indicate any kind of rim bruise, right?

A rim bruise severe enough to obliterate a whole word from the lettered edge would likely be very visible in those pics, anyway, so that's probably not the issue- I just had to ask. >>

No bruise, just the flattening as described above. Thanks. -Preussen

JRocco

Dawg is correct.

Nice coin you have there Preussen. Your example has great detail and a really nice look to her.
Bet she has beautiful color also, not too extreme but a nice look.
I love to see the birds talons looking like this.

Preussen

<< <i>Dawg is correct.

Nice coin you have there Preussen. Your example has great detail and a really nice look to her.
Bet she has beautiful color also, not too extreme but a nice look.
I love to see the birds talons looking like this. >>

Thanks. It is much more attractive in hand. -Preussen

Athena

Looks lovely with some color that likely shows nicely when in hand.

Quarternut

In answer to the question by the OP, that particular edge error is not that rare. There are many examples known that are missing letters or whole words, where the two parallel bar dies that applied the edge lettering overlaped.

The more rare edge errors are the double struck and triple struck errors where the whole edge lettering "FIFTY CENTS OR HALF A DOLLAR" is struck multiple times on top of each other where the words look like F F I I F F T T Y Y, etc.

Another very rare error is the flip over double struck, where the edge lettering was struck one way then the planchet was fed back through and the edge lettering was impressed again, but upside down in relationship to the first strike.

One last intriguing error is only known on one die marriage and only on the earlier die stage of that marriage. 1818 O-108, the one known as the "pincher 8's" variety, comes with an edge error showing half of the edge lettering one way and the other half upside down. So far there are around a dozen known of this error. This occurred when one of the edge lettering bar dies was installed upside down in relation to the other one in the castaing machine.

The holy grail of BH edge errors is the unlettered edge, where the planchet never went through the castaing machine to apply the lettered edge. These have an entirely different look than if someone just shaved off the lettered edge.

As was stated above, it looks like your example has what is called a "guido", where the two bar dies overlapped and left a small portion of the planchet unstruck. this allowed the planchet to expand more at this point and created a resulting flat spot on the obverse and reverse of the struck coin.

Looks like a nice coin though!

QN

JRocco

Along the lines of what QN is referring to

Quarternut

Thanks JRocco, I didn't have any pics handy!

QN

Preussen

Thanks for the info, everyone. -Preussen