Is this a Bolen Bar Cent?
1834
Posts: 62
I was considering the purchase of the of the Bar Cent imaged above offered by Dealer X. But, while reading Colonial Coin Union's Is this a real Bar Copper? article I noticed that the the Bolen example they provide does not have a defective right foot/upright on A. However, on the porous example CCU has listed as "Another frequently seen copy" the right foot/upright of the A is defective.
So, can I assume that the piece offered by Dealer X is not a Bolen struck copy or are there several different varieties of Bolen Struck Copies?
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Whereas the original's have the S of USA overlapping the A, which seems to be the case here.
I'm not the expert on this, and I'm not 100% sure what I'm saying is correct, but it is what I remember reading/hearing about.
I'll let the experts chime in now
<< <i>are there several different varieties of Bolen Struck Copies? >>
No - to the best of my knowledge all the Bolen pieces were struck from the same pair of dies.
Your observation about the foot of the A is a good one, and would give me pause.
That looks like a modern cast copy of a Bolen copy, if that makes sense. It is not an original, nor is it a Bolen copy, of which only 65 were supposedly struck in 1862/3. A great reference on this subject is Neil Musante's The Medallic Work of John Adams Bolen (2002).
<< <i>That looks like a modern cast copy of a Bolen copy, if that makes sense. >>
I personally don't think it's a copy of a Bolen copy - I think it's just a modern copy that is well worn.
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<< <i>That looks like a modern cast copy of a Bolen copy, if that makes sense. >>
I personally don't think it's a copy of a Bolen copy - I think it's just a modern copy that is well worn. >>
You are right. When I first stated that, I was looking at a poor quality image of a Bolen copy. I just checked a better source and, although the OP's coin is similar to a Bolen copy, it is not the same. The coin posted here looks modern any way you slice it.