Half Dime experts..a quickie

Coin Finder · February 18, 2011 9:02AM

1854 Date overlaps base Breen #3069, Breen says "rare" how rare are they really?

Thanks

Coin Finder · February 18, 2011 11:53AM

Barndog · February 18, 2011 11:59AM

no clue about modern half dimes, sorry

pursuitofliberty · February 18, 2011 12:29PM

probably as rare as the collectors that go after them

which based on the under of this thread being at 5, is probably pretty dang rare!

rhedden · February 18, 2011 12:47PM

I see them all the time. I have not purchased one because they are simply too easy to cherrypick.

I own more half dimes than the total number of people in the world who collect half dimes.

MrHalfDime · February 20, 2011 2:06AM

The 1854 Liberty Seated half dime ranks among the highest mintage dates in the entire series, with fully 5,740,000 produced at the Philadelphia Mint alone. With such a high mintage, and owing to the advent of the hubbing process used in producing the many working dies, making all dies essentially identical, the ability to distinguish between individual dies, and thus to attribute individual die marriages, or ‘varieties’, becomes more difficult. This leads many students and collectors of the series to ignore minor differences in the dies, and focus primarily on the more obvious, ‘eyeball’ varieties. Certainly the 1854 “Date Overlaps Base” would fall into this easy-to-attribute category. The date numerals are of the proper size for the date, but the die sink struck the four digit gang punch, or logotype, much too high into the exergue, with the tops of all four numerals merging with the base of the rock. This variety was properly described and plated by Dr. Daniel W. Valentine in his 1931 monograph on United States half dimes, designated as the Valentine V1, and has been well recognized since that time. It was even described by Will W. Neil, as his N3, in his December 1927 article on half dimes in The Numismatist. It is also identified as B-3069 in Walter Breen’s encyclopedia on United States coins.

With all due respect to the venerable Walter Breen, many of his statements relating to relative rarity must be taken with a large grain of salt. If we try to apply the Sheldon rarity scale to any of the Liberty Seated half dimes, I would argue that probably all except the 1839-O V1 Large O would rate just an R1, or common. For such a high mintage series, we must apply a very different rarity scale in order to express relative rarity. Such a modified scale was proposed by Dick Osburn in an excellent article on availability and rarity of Liberty Seated Half Dollars which appeared in Issue #76 of the Gobrecht Journal, quarterly journal of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club. In a subsequent issue of the Gobrecht Journal (Issue #79, November 2000), I wrote a similar article on the relative rarity and availability of Liberty Seated half dimes, and applied Dick Osburn’s modified rarity scale to that series. In that article, I wrote of the 1854 V1 Date Overlaps Base variety as follows:

“The 1854 half dime is the second most common date in the series. The 1854 V1 half dime is sometimes referred to as the ‘Date Overlaps Base’ variety. While this is an interesting variety, it is not scarce, as numerous examples can be found in grades up to and including EF. This variety, however, becomes scarce in grades of AU and above.”

I would certainly stand by these comments today, and consider the 1854 V1 to be readily available with only a little bit of searching. My own reference collection contains fifteen (15) examples, the finest being an attractive AU-58. Indeed, on eBay right now there are at least three examples for sale, as follows:

(I do not own any of these coins, nor do I have any financial or other interest in them; they are merely presented here as examples)

http://cgi.ebay.com/1854-Seated-Liberty-Half-Dime-G-US-Coin-/110613883825?pt=Coins_US_

http://cgi.ebay.com/1854-Std-Half-Dime-Date-Rock-Breen-3069-EF-/300508485691?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item45f7b3983b

http://cgi.ebay.com/1854-Arrows-MISPLACED-Date-Seated-Liberty-Half-Dime-/110648569917?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item19c32b303d

roadrunner · February 20, 2011 3:18AM

I'd have to disagree about nearly all half dimes being R-1 (R-1+ or R-1>1250 extant) per the Sheldon Rarity Scale.

I'd place the following business strike dates as R3- or better (<500 known): 40 wd, 40-0 wd, 44-0, 46, 48 LD, 53-0 na, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68. There are probably others but those are my favorites. Some of these dates probably have 200-300 known, possibly less. And of course as you get to problem free XF/AU pieces and Uncs, many dates become R5 to R7. Didn't list the 70-s for obvious reasons. There are certainly other varieties as well. There are a dozen or two inbetween dates with 500-1200 known that I didn't list. And some of those might fall into that list (42-0, 52-0, 53na, S mints, etc.). Considering that "great rarities" like the 1901-s quarter with thousands known (ie low R-1) the "common" half dimes don't look so common. I'd guesstimate that one third of the seated half dimes are rarer than the 1901-s quarter.

roadrunner

Barndog · February 20, 2011 3:49AM

a MrHalfDime sighting...football season must be over

MrHalfDime · February 20, 2011 3:51AM

Roadrunner's comments are well taken, and I may have been guilty of a bit of hyperbole when making my point about the lack of rarity for most Liberty Seated half dimes. I would encourage anyone interested in this subject to read my Gobrecht Journal article in the November 2000 issue #79, wherein I get very specific regarding the relative rarity of the major varieties in the series. All of the dates and varieties mentioned by Roadrunner are, in fact, listed in Rarity Groups A-E (A=1-10 extant examples; E=401-850 extent examples in the Osburn rarity scale), as are numerous others, including the 1859 and 1860 Transitionals, 1840-O ND Transitional, 1838 Small Stars, and even the 1858 Inverted Date. I appreciate the correction.

MrHalfDime · February 20, 2011 3:53AM

a MrHalfDime sighting...football season must be over

Indeed it is. And it ended two weeks prematurely for the ill-fated Patriots.

Half Dime experts..a quickie

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