Help on 1861-O Seated Half...Question on identifying die pairings
zski123
Posts: 258 ✭✭✭
Hello,
I'm bidding on this 1861-O Seated Half and was wondering if anyone would know possible die pairs? I know it's tough especially on worn coins but this seems to have adequate details. The obvious tell I know if a die crack to place it made under Confederate control vs Union. Are there any other tells? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Nothing else to do now with my time!
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Comments
PCGS coinfacts can help you. They show nice closeups of the die crack:
https://pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1861-o-50c-w-13-csa-issue-bisected-date/572147/40
https://pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1861-o-50c-csa-obverse/39968
W-09 (CSA, Rarity-2), based on the reverse die state, and the strength of obverse and reverse dentils.
It is clearly Reverse B, given the die cracks at the tops of TES OF A and RICA.
The question then is whether it is W-02, W-08 or W-09.
I used Bill Bugert's (free) attribution guide (Volume IV).
His guides are amazing, and show you exactly what to look for.
http://www.lsccweb.org/BillBugertBooks/BillBugertBooks.php
The coin looks somewhat polished and has some large obverse marks.
Given that it's not very rare, you may be able to find a better one.
Thank you! Looking through the guide now. It's great! We'll see where it goes. It looks like a nice entry if the price is right. Hopefully, that'll be the case. As the saying goes, there's no such thing as a bad coin, only a bad price. So far, so good Thanks again!