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Opinions- a couple Seated Half Dimes
nesvt
Posts: 2,214
I know nothing about half dimes. These must of been in a group of silver that included Morgan dollars. I am cleaning up and curious if these are worth anything. There must be varieties in the half dime series, right?
The 1858 looks lightly wiped. Shows signs of clashing on the reverse.
The 1853-O looks cleaned. Has a die break through the 3.
Thanks in advance for any info and opinions!
The 1858 looks lightly wiped. Shows signs of clashing on the reverse.
The 1853-O looks cleaned. Has a die break through the 3.
Thanks in advance for any info and opinions!
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Comments
As the Liberty Seated series (1837 - 1873 for the half dimes) ushered in the widespread use of the hubbing process to produce the working dies, it is often impossible to distinguish between the cloned dies, particularly for the Philadelphia coins, where no mint mark was used. In order to differentiate between different dies, and therefore to identify the different die marriages used to strike the coins, we must use the only features that were hand struck into the working dies - the date numerals on the obverse and the mint mark on the reverse (where applicable). Sometimes, however, even these diagnostics are not sufficient to positively identify a die or die pair. Such is the case with your 1858 half dime, I'm afraid. It is not the "1858 Over Inverted Date", nor is it the much scarcer "1858 Doubled Date", as there is no evidence of repunched numerals. Even the clashing visible on the reverse is insufficient to positively identify the variety, as clashing was very common at the Mint during this period.
The 1853-O, however, can be positively identified, as an example of Valentine's V2, for which he described the cited die crack through the numeral 3 as follows:
"Crack from base to edge back of 3."
This anomaly was actually described by some as an "1853/1" in the past, evidently by those who incorrectly determined the die crack through the 3 in the date to be a previously struck 1. Your example is actually not a very late die state for this variety, as a substantial die crack later develops on the reverse, from the rim through S2 (the second S in STATES), which is not seen on your coin. My reference collection contains seven (7) examples of this variety, ranging from F-12 to AU-58, in several different die states.
It is difficult to grade a three-dimensional coin from a two-dimensional image on a computer screen, but I would venture that the 1858 is close to EF-40, while the 1853-O V2 is G-VG. Two interesting coins
Aside from a few close-up images of Morgan VAMs that I post on VAMworld, I don't contribute much to this hobby. If either of these half dimes would help your research or collection, you can have them. No charge. Just send me a PM with an address and let me know if you want either or both. Thanks again for the info.
Norm
<< <i>If either of these half dimes would help your research or collection, you can have them. No charge. >>