Darkside Die Varieties?

Nysoto · October 27, 2007 2:26AM

I will try this again on the correct forum! Is there any darkside series that is actively collected by die marriage? Not just RPD's, RPM's and overdates, but pre-hubbing era coins with hand punched lettering as found on 1794-1838 US coins. Any reference books on die marriages? I have thought of choosing a series that is relatively inexpensive and common, such as 1600-1632 Polish 3 Polkers, and collecting and indentifying the die varieties.

FPCoins · October 27, 2007 6:25AM

I started collecting world coins to get away from that kind of collecting - and away form full head, lines, bands and other nonsense.

Nysoto · October 27, 2007 8:46AM

FPCoins,

I agree that full head, lines, and bands are nonsense. A marketing ploy to get more money out of coins. They don't represent die varieties, they are only a measure of strike and possibly die state.

TwoKopeiki · October 27, 2007 8:54AM

There's a book on early Mexican Republic profile eagle coinage that lists individual dies and die marriages - "Hookneck - El Aguila de perfil" by Hubbard and O'Harrow.

MacCrimmon · October 27, 2007 10:50AM

Nysoto, you might consider Michael Freeman's book on British bronze coinage for more modern coins; 1860 to date. Charles Davis (numislit) was recently selling the Freeman reprint on eBay. In fact, I need to get the reprint myself.

As far as online, you can review some of these Freeman numbers and marriages over at Colin Cooke's website.....> here.

This is probably the largest online library of images of these different marriages.

Going further back before 1860, the Peck book lists nearly every known variety in copper, tin, etc., including some patterns. Just those two should keep you occuped for the next 20 years.

MrEureka · October 27, 2007 11:28AM

Besides ancients and cobs, I can't think of any early coinage that is "actively collected" by die variety. However, some pioneering efforts have been made in various areas to get the ball rolling, and many more areas are ripe for the taking. My suggestion is that it would be more fun to pick a series that you can make your own, rather than collecting by someone else's roadmap. It would be cool if one day people collected by Nysoto numbers.

eureka · October 27, 2007 1:01PM

I know there have been inroads into this area with Mexican coins. Looking at a recent USMexNA journal I see an announcement for the release of "2 Escudos of the Republic of Mexico 1825-1870, A Study of Die Varieties", by JR Rollo. I also see an ad for "8 Reales Republica Mexicana(Cap and Rays 8 reales of The Republic of Mexico) 1823-1897 by Mike Dunnigan & JB Parker which presumeably deals with die varieties....it had better for $125 hehe.

Nysoto · October 28, 2007 9:24AM

Thanks for the replies. I would rather head in the direction that MrEureka suggested and find a series that has not been cataloged by die varieties. There is a lot of opportunity with foreign coins for this. Another option that would not take a lifetime would be to select a short series, or even a one year type, and do a die variety study. I have a 1517/1617 Saxony reformation centennial ducat that I have seen with three different die marriages, there must have been quite a few struck. This kind of stuff is interesting to me, as you can learn a lot about a series by studying the die varieties.

Daltonista · October 28, 2007 9:33AM

There are a few areas where I've encountered many die varieties, marriages, muling, etc., but most are not, strictly speaking, coins. Examples would include the Maria Theresia thalers, virtually all British bank and tradesmen's tokens from the 17th century through the early 19th century, ending at about 1814 with the Davis series and the Dalton silver tokens (my particular passion). Also in this category would be Admiral Vernon tokens, and don't forget British colonial exonumia, as well...especially the extensive series such as Oceania and Canada: the Ships, Colonies, and Commerce series from PEI, Bouquet Sous, etc.

What most of those have in common, of course, is that they were not minted under government supervision, so that would explain a lot of the variability, I suppose.

That's enough for now, I guess.

Best to all ~
Tom

coinkat · October 28, 2007 9:37PM

I think there are some darkside coinage collected by variety... Charles II Crowns, William III Crowns and even Canadian Dollars. There are Short Water Line examples for 1946, 1954 that are different than the SWL examples from 1950.

Such examples when found make interesting conversation...

Darkside Die Varieties?

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