Twin 1844-O $5's

RYK

When I purchased the first of the two 1844-O $5 last summer at the ANA show, I thought it was extremely cool that the die was lapped, and the stars were so weak that it looked like a pattern. In fact, I bought it quite impulsively (shocking, eh?) as soon as I saw it. Well, I had the opportunity to purchase a very similar coin and recently crossed it and TrueViewed it and thought I would post them together. My guess is that they were struck from the same dies (in the same lapped condition). The 1844-O is, by far, the most common No Motto New Orleans $5 and one of the most common No Motto $5's. It is readily available in circulated condition and gets more scarce and expensive in the higher AU and MS grades.

rhedden

Common or not, these old southern gold coins have a lot of history and character. Thanks for sharing!

FredWeinberg

It's very possible that the die's were not lapped,
but 'filled' w/grease or other foreign material that
prevented the starts from being fully struck up.

golden

<< <i>It's very possible that the die's were not lapped,
but 'filled' w/grease or other foreign material that
prevented the starts from being fully struck up. >>

jmb

Nice pair.

Timbuk3

Very nice !!!

GeorgeKellogg

<< <i>It's very possible that the dies were not lapped,
but 'filled' w/grease or other foreign material that
prevented the stars from being fully struck up. >>



It's also possible that the planchets weren't properly annealed (softened by heating) before striking, which would cause the metal not to flow into the dies properly. Regardless of the cause, I agree that these coins from The Big Easy are very intriguing.

telephoto1

I tend to agree with the "filled die" theory... these are amazingly consistent pieces. Cool.

Coinosaurus

That is way cool. You should sell me one of them

They were really struggling w/coin production in New Orleans that year.

RYK

Actually, my partner in the synchronized collection should purchase one of them.

AnkurJ

Very pretty!

mkman123

nice pair

VMRCC

Very nice!

Justacommeman

<< <i>Actually, my partner in the synchronized collection should purchase one of them. >>



Your partner is one cool dude RYK. MJ

bosco5041

It's interesting to think that these two coins could have seen each other at the new orleans mint (if they had eyes) 167 years ago. I think John Tyler was president of the U.S. then and we were just getting over some tuff economic times. Great coins and a lot of history RYK, thanks for posting them.

DorkGirl

<< <i>Nice pair. >>

ricko

Very nice.. I like old gold.... heck, I like ALL gold... Cheers, RickO