Benefits of basic research
Numismatic research can be harrowing stuff. Not only must one navigate the byzantine processes and rules of various archives and historical societies, but once inside the hallowed halls documents are often filed in confusing, or missing, order and context. All this means that basic research is commonly a slow slog through volumes and boxes filled with routine reports, on the chance of finding a few “keepers” worthy of copying. All of this fuels the increase in knowledge, and makes this hobby more interesting and enjoyable for all.
Yet, items are found. Some are about well-known events, such as the Saint-Gaudens coin designs; others expand little known experiments such as the 1942 cent and nickel replacement alloys. Still others present new and interesting events such as the 1897 US Mint examination of a patent claim to turn base metal into gold and silver.
The photos below show two discoveries from basic research. Nothing fancy – just an examination of thousands of coins and high quality photos.
1922-S double eagle. “Filed Die” variety. Deep steel file cuts across the obverse die. Scarce date/mint and only 2 examples of this variety known. (In Heritage’s Feb., 2017 Long Beach sale. This is the poster’s discovery coin.)
Here is another significant die variety, this time on a 1909-S half eagle. This piece has a very strong die clash on the obverse. The arrows point to specific parts of the reverse that were transferred to the obverse die during production. Research to establish survival of this date/mint and the likely quantity of clashed die pieces available is in progress.
Comments
I picture Roger sitting at the end of one of these aisles...
... in one of these chairs ...
... being allowed to copy stuff into a yellowed spiral notebook with a dull golf pencil by the light of a flickering overhead fluorescent light diffused by decades of dead flies.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
LOL!
But in all seriousness, I'm glad for the research done by others. Makes the hobby more interesting.
dead fly diffusal is just the worst.
just ask spassky. :P
.
<--- look what's behind the mask! - cool link 1/NO ~ 2/NNP ~ 3/NNC ~ 4/CF ~ 5/PG ~ 6/Cert ~ 7/NGC 7a/NGC pop~ 8/NGCF ~ 9/HA archives ~ 10/PM ~ 11/NM ~ 12/ANACS cert ~ 13/ANACS pop - report fakes 1/ACEF ~ report fakes/thefts 1/NCIS - Numi-Classes SS ~ Bass ~ Transcribed Docs NNP - clashed coins - error training - V V mm styles -
Gosh, when I see tooling marks like that, the first thing that comes to mind is "counterfeit"!
"... being allowed to copy stuff into a yellowed spiral notebook with a dull golf pencil by the light of a flickering overhead fluorescent light diffused by decades of dead flies."
Close, but, well....actually the room is larger and the boxes reach 25-feet up. On admission by the Steward, Mr. Bumble. We are given a single candle, a cheap golf pencil stolen from one of Trump's hyped golf projects, and a match book with one match remaining. No food. No water. No toilet. No bucket. No TP. Need a break? Raise your hand and wait for Mr. Bumble to awaken. One box at a time. One folder on the desk. Hands in plain sight at all times. It is cold and damp, but no coat or sweater allowed. Warm your fingers over the candle. Air is stagnate, fetid, stale as the crusts dispensed by the pot of thin gruel called luncheon. Treasure that bit of gristle and stick of bone; we were fortunate this day. At closing hour, Mr. Bumble dons his leather slicker, saber spurs, and cracks his ancient whip - "Begone! Begone, I say ye!" Snuff our candle. Close our notebook. Return our box to the endless stack. We file out as we came, through dank tunnels cut from bare rock by legions of troglodytes. Candles are collected. Pencils gathered. Paper checked leaf by leaf. All for another day.
Very nice to know that you have a great sense of humor during your tedious work that you share with all of us here, thank you.
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
Wow Roger, I can see why folks are standing in line to do numismatic historical research!
Now Roger, you know at the end of that diatribe you turn
to Mr. Bumble, holding out your note pad & say,,,,,,,,MORE PLEASE !!
R.I.P. Bear
Roger - was that YOU in the next cell? We have his cousin, Mr. Brumble. Next time, knock your chair against the floor a couple times and we'll knock back...
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
I've met a few Mr. Bumbles in my time. Roger speaks the truth.
I know your plight, Roger. Been there and done that. Boring as heck, till you find that little something that wakes you up and puts one heck of a smile on your face. I can remember hours and days researching CC dollars in N. Nevada at the old Mint, State archives in CC and at the University in Reno. Tedious and rewarding at the same time. My wife was with me the whole way and it surely helped to have two sets of eyes reading and searching.
bob:)
Great humor.... That being said, research, while interesting, can be tremendous drudgery at times. I research old maps and property files dating back to the late 1600's for homesteads etc., in order to metal detect such sites for caches... One day, I will hit the jackpot... Cheers, RickO
With the internet, people sometimes slack off and just trust the incomplete info they see there. In order to really learn, sometimes you need to do some work.
YN Member of the ANA, ANS, NBS, EAC, C4, MCA, PNNA, CSNS, ILNA, TEC, and more!
Always buying numismatic literature and sample slabs.
Very little of the "good stuff" is available on the internet or in digital versions. High-quality digitization is costly and prone to uncorrected technical errors. For example, nearly every Google-digitized book has multiple errors such as missing pages, blanks, geometry distortions, and page-turn images. While every bit of the work helps, researchers also rely on accuracy. The original page is "ground-truth" regardless of content.