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1847/6 Liberty seated half....I just do not see it
WildWestHalfDollars
Posts: 7,064 ✭✭✭✭✭
Can someone post a clear image of this rare overdate. I try to see the 6 but its just not there even in the red book. I would think for such an expensive coin it would be a very clear overdate.
Liberty Seated Half Dollars
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Here you go.
The toning on this coin accentuates the details of overdate.
Here are some images, all from COINFACTS.
Here is the 1847/6. Note the base of the extra 1, the base of the extra 4, and the base of the 6.
Here is the 1846 Tall Date.
Here is the 1846 Medium Date.
If you look at the width of the underdate on the 1847/6, using the denticles as your counters and starting from the left end of the base of the extra 1 to the middle of the bottom of the 6, I am confident in saying that the 1846 die so overdated had the Tall Date. The Medium 1846 is almost a denticle wider.
TD
Ok, which one is the most elusive one to get?
That is a question for the serious Seated Half collectors.
Please note there are three different die states for the 1847/46 half dollar. The first one (shown above) has all 3 of the underdigits, 1, 4, and 6. The second die state has only the 6 of the underdate visible. The third die state has no underdigits visible, but you can tell it is an 1847/6 because of the doubling on the obverse shield. As you might guess, the first die state is much more desirable than the second, which is much more desirable than the third.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
Is the doubling on the shield indicative of a re-hubbing? Like after the underdate was (mostly) effaced by grinding or polishing down the field of the die?
Bill Bugert has an excellent write up regarding this variety in his A Register of Liberty Seated Half Dollars Volume V Philadelphia Mint 1839-1853 that can be found along with his other registers on Seated Half Dollars online. He is of the opinion that it was a medium date beneath the 1847.
http://old.lsccweb.org/BillBugertBooks.php
Thanks for the website to
Well, I have tremendous respect for Bill, but I am not convinced that the underdate was the Medium Date rather than the Tall Date. I am willing to amicably agree to disagree.
Can anybody do a photographic overlay of the two 1846 dates, centering the smaller base of the 4 from the Tall Date over the center of the wider base of the 4 on the Medium Date? I would like to see where the outer edges of the 1's and the 6's end up relative to that reference point. In Bills overlay he has the remnant of the 1 from the 1846 date being the center of the 1 from that date. I am wondering if it might be the lower left serif of that 1.
BTW, are we in agreement that the indentations in the base of Liberty above the 1847 date digits are not the result of an attempt to efface, or polish away, the 1846 date? These indentations, found on many Seated Liberty coins, are merely the result of metal being displaced upwards during the date punching, and can be found on both overdated and non-overdated dies. See how the indentation above the 8 is wide, matching the top of the 8, while the indentation above the 4 is small, and centered above the upright of the 4.
Because the field above the date digits is adjacent to the large hole in the die that strikes the Liberty figure, the metal in the field is less constrained and can be displaced towards that hole. Those bulges into the hole in the die than become indentations on the coin.
Thanks for all the input much appreciated!!!
Liberty Seated Half Dollars
I find it interesting that the 1847/46 half, the 1848 doubled date quarter, and two varieties of the 1847/7 cent all have the same underdating in the same position.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.