1853-P Seated Liberty Half Dollar - Extra Rays?

oih82w8

Just doing some "looking around" and the reverse struck me odd enough to compare a few others and there are either extra rays (Early Die State) or the ones that I have seen were from polished away details from Late Die State, or a variety of some sort. The rays that I am referring to are under the viewers right wing above the arrows and under the viewers left wing above the olive branch;

Presently listed through Heritage Auctions;

1853 50C Arrows and Rays AU53 PCGS



in comparison to;



The length of some of the rays is different as well. I am pretty sure that the dies were hand cut in the 19th Century which may explain the differences.

Thank you for your interest and comments.

LindeDad

Excessive die wear was why the design was used for only one year I have read.
Mine seems to not have all.


But I see a crack forming in the area.

TigersFan2

My 1853 quarter has the rays under the wing.

roadrunner

It appears to be unusual to find 1853 Philly halves with much of the arrow extensions under the eagle's wings. You can usually see some trace of them under the right wing, but not often under the other wing. Yours is a lot stronger than most. Even the proofs don't seem to show those extended arrows. I looked at a couple of the New Orleans' coins and they seem to be a bit more prevalent. The one below shows extreme detail very rarely seen. You'd have expected the Philly proofs to show that kind of detail....but they don't.

1853-0 A&R ex-Andre Dawson, proof like

LoveMyLiberty

Wiley & Bugert discuss this one year issue having
rays, in their book "Liberty Seated Half Dollars".

Temporary Master dies were made to produce
working hubs with this modified design and these
in turn made all the working dies for 1853.
There were 6 die marriages.

The addition of rays & arrows seemed to cause excess
stress on the dies and numerous die cracks. In addition
die clashes were a common problem. As a result of
polishing the dies to remove clashes, some features
were lost in the area of the rays.

Scanning examples of these types for both P & O pieces
in CoinFacts, varying amounts of the rays design are
gone, while some are complete. Even 3 of the 5 or 6
known proof coins show this effect, not sure why.

CaptHenway

The weak and/or missing rays are definitely caused by overpolishing. The unanswered question is was this overpolishing deliberate or random.

The polishing could have been done to minimize clashing or cracking, or the die may have simply been left on the basining wheel too long, or they might have been trying to avoid cracking by lowering the relief of the die and thereby reducing stress on the die. I don't know.

LoveMyLiberty

" or they might have been trying to avoid cracking by lowering the relief of the die and thereby reducing stress on the die. I don't know. "


This !