Some of my other varieties

JRocco · Veteran Member

Hey guys, I haven't posted to this thread in a long time. Happy Holidays to all.
Here is really cool variety.
This coin was minted during a pretty tumultuous time in our history, 1812. This is the 1812 Overton 109a variety. Aside from a few minor oddities, this die suffered a very dramatic twist of fate. Apparently, as is most popularly believed from post testing, a large part of the screw press- one of the screws- broke off and fell between the dies during the striking of one of the coins between the prime state and this "a" state and resulted in some pretty dramatic damage to the die, most notably the reverse die.

In fact, if you look closely enough, you can see the screw threads as well as the screw bolt top damage on the resulting coins struck by this die pair. The die was later lapped or heavily polished to completely clean off the damaged area, but not before 3 strong individual die clashes occurred each one after the dies rotated and became more and more misaligned. Look at the area under the right (facing) wing and you can see 3 clean imprints of the letters R, T and Y from the obverse LIBERTY, all in upside down reversed fashion of course.
Another mystery is what the cause of this large round lump to the left of star 10 is and why it wasn't lapped off as it is seen on most coins from this die marriage even after "work" was done to the dies.
This one is just plain fun.

JRocco · Veteran Member

Here is another interesting older gal.
This one is an 1818 O-115a, listed as an R4+ coin (81-120 known). This one helps to show the extent that they kept these old dies in service, You could almost see this one breaking in half real soon after this one was struck. This is a DEEP die break running across this coin, with a couple other nice die cracks thrown in there to boot.

JRocco · Veteran Member

How about a nice large copper.
Can anyone ID the variety?
The doubled profile is just a bonus for me.
Sorry for the oily look, but I have this one soaking in oil and just took it out for some pics.

Russellhome · Veteran Member

Yummy eye-candy. And it even looks like chocolate!

Dick · Expert Member

How would one describe the cud, IF: LIKE THE BREAK IS NEARLY 360, AROUND THE RIM AREA. iF IT ACTUALLY BROKE LOOSE AND LEFT ONLY THE INNER PORTION, OR VICE-VERSA, only the rim remains? That is a NICE one! It probably could not happen, either way, thinking about it.....I lone a die break, and a die clash. I even have a little affection for a doubled die, enven if I don't have one, yet. enjoy the long weekend, and DON'T BE ONE OF THE STATISTICS! (sorry about the "un-intended caps. I don't see them until it is too late!)
DICK

JRocco · Veteran Member

Here is a really cool DBH.
Imagine trying to grade this one.
Take a look:
This is the 1807 O-106 that shares the 4-s2 obverse and the D reverse.
Talk about a mismatched pair.

This obverse, obverse 4, was used to produce 3 different marriages, the 105, 106 and 107., hence its condition in relation to this reverse. This obverse die was used with 2 different reverses before being used to mint this coin with a third reverse marriage.
The reverse on the other hand is strong on this coin. I do not see any of the cracks that are said to appear on most 106's. None at all.
The Leaman/Gunnet emission order for 1807 draped bust halves is 108, 109, 110, 105, 107, 106, 101, 102, 104, 103, and then recently discovered 115 at the end. The 1807 O-106 can easily be attributed be the lowest berry being between the two stands of A, the only 1807 reverse that has this feature.
This is a great series to study.
Here is one of the diagnostics of this coin. The reverse has 5 berries, the upper berry is half buried in the leaf, and another is the Eagle's beak comes down on the top side of the star point.

JRocco · Veteran Member

Here is a really nice CBH overdate.
The 1820/19 had 2 varieties. The O-101 utilizes the square bottom 2 and this one, the O-102 utilizes a curled base 2. The 1820 is one of the keys in the CBH series. It had the third lowest mintage in the series, including the 2 overdates. Many consider this overdate the best in the series, my favorite is the 1817/3.
This die shows heavy die lapping and therefor shows a very weak obverse center strike. This should not be considered when grading this variety as it is due to the die itself. Notice the strong periphery particularly the star detail compared to the center detail.
I really like this coin as it has almost prooflike fields and is an early die strike showing the overdate clearly.
A great variety in a great series.

KurtS · Senior Member

Wow...what a great group of varieties! Very Happy

I especially like that 1820/19 and how the 9 nestles inside the 0...not exactly hidden. Laughing

JRocco · Veteran Member

Here is really interesting coin I just purchased. I found a dealer who has a large hoard of these old 18th century Russian copper coins. This massive piece weighs in at an amazing 47.8 grams.
The coin is dated 1785 and sports a few nice varieties. It is a double struck coin that also sports a very nice Re-Punched date as well as a nice die clash to boot.
For a couple of centuries after this coin was minted it was an offense punishable by death to be caught smuggling these Catherine II coins out of the homeland and I have been told this has led to their uncommon sightings. This coin shows the mintmark EM. I was able to purchase a piece today dated 1789 that carries the very uncommon AM mintmark.
Talk about a piece of world history.

Dick · Expert Member

John, that is a very nice coin! I see three strikes, and very easy to see, even fior me. It must have been "on the run", to have been struck that far apart each time. sure is great the last strike was real strong! One learns a lot, from looking at some of these coins. it makes one wionder, how did they get so much detail? We look at our modern coins, and wish there was "something" really nice to look at, but, when you look at the "extreme design, and quality of the design on the WY quarter, YUCK! I am beginning to thinka bou maybe acquiring a few of them. It depends on the cost. These days, that seems to be the primary question....BTW, is the orientation same as ours?
Dick

JRocco · Veteran Member

Hi Dick,
Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.
These coins have a medal alignment not a coin alignment. What amazes me most about these coins is their condition. Uncommon to see 18th century copper that is in this condition.
Here are two 1789 pieces. One from the Ekaterinburg mint that minted coins from 1762 to 1876 (EM) and one from the Annensk mint that produced coins from 1789-1799 (AM).

Dick · Expert Member

John, Thanks for the info. I know nothing about commemoratives, or medals, so I thought I wouyld ask. They sure make the "modern designs look pretty crummy!
Dick

GarryN · Expert Member

I love those Bust halves. My local shop always has a few on the bid board, but nothing like these.

JRocco · Veteran Member

Here is a CBH that I really love and am really happy to have in my collection.
This is an 1811 O-104a
There were 11 varieties in 1811 and just two, the O-103 and the O-104 utilize a Large 8 and are thus known as the Large 8 variety, a RedBook listed variety for the 1811.
This coin booms with luster that hits you from every angle when you rotate this in your hands because of the pronounced die cracks. There is a mint made planchet flaw on this coin (above the clasp and the date) that in my opinion does not distract at all from the coin, but kept the price of this out of the stratosphere. If you look real close at the third pic you can see the slight luster breaks/friction that can be seen on the tip of the nose and the middle of the chin.
They don't get much prettier than this one in my opinion.

Teryble · Veteran Member

You have alot of old cool coins! They look BU for being so old! Are these bought from estates? I would like to get a nice, nothing special, i.e.variety, I guess common, but nice looking 1700's coin, maybe Irish? Or early American. Do you have access to such? Would love to see some pics!
Thanx, Tery