1853-O Half Dollar -- Error

Comments

• pursuitofliberty Posts: 7,300 ✭✭✭✭✭

  February 25, 2008 1:00PM

  ummm ... frankly, I'm thinking fake
  
  
  those sure appear to be tooling marks in and around the date ... and they don't look right to me
  
  however I don't have a die characteristic book for these
  
  
  
  

  
  “We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
  
  Todd - BHNC #242

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• NumisOxide Posts: 11,001 ✭✭✭✭✭

  February 25, 2008 1:11PM

  Halo effect.

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• GoldenEyeNumismatics Posts: 13,187 ✭✭✭

  February 25, 2008 1:20PM

  
  
  << <i>Halo effect. >>
  
  
  
  Yea, he got it.
  
  The coin's cleaned too, but not fake.

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• CaptHenway Posts: 32,731 ✭✭✭✭✭

  February 25, 2008 2:16PM

  
  
  << <i>Halo effect. >>
  
  
  
  Which means that most of the design elements on the hub that made the dies had an outline, or "halo," of extra metal around the design element to strengthen it and prolong hub life. It is surmised that this outline was supposed to be polished away when the working die was polished prior to use, but this is not certain. Sometimes it is polished away, but because there are so many dies on which it wasn't my personal guess is that the Chief Engraver simply did not care.
  
  The lines around the date look like random die polish marks, though I do not recall seeing that die.
  
  TD

  Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.

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• coolest Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭

  February 25, 2008 3:32PM

  Most, maybe all, of the 53-O halves I have looked at have this strange doubling (halo) on the reverse. I don't remember seeing it on the obverse.

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