I want to welcome everyone to the JR Newsletter. Bill Luebke started "JR News" a few years ago in an effort to provide like-minded numismatists with the opportunity to share information. I hope to uphold the high standards set by Bill in my role as Editor, JR Newsletter. Also, without the help of Rob Logan, we would not have been able to resume this newsletter as a weekly email. The JRCS owes him a great deal of thanks!
Some background before I present this week's contributions:
Almost anything goes with this newsletter. It is YOUR newsletter. I am merely the agent who transmits the information. Feel free to ask questions, provide answers to the questions of others, share stories of recent finds, offer anecdotes about your experiences as a collector/dealer/researcher, tell us about a neat numismatic experience, or place coins up for sale or trade to a targeted audience. For the newsletter to work well, it needs your input.
I will send images with this newsletter when people provide them to me. Images included with this newsletter will generally be smaller in size in order to limit this email to a manageable level. However, I will post larger images on the JR Newsletter blog at http://jr-newsletter.blogspot.com/ . Clicking on images found on the JR Newsletter blog causes the images to enlarge, enabling you to view details much better.
Enough background, here's what you really signed up to read:
Gary Rosner wrote:
I was studying a 1829 LM-4 Bust Half Dime in a VF20 PCGS holder. Two questions came up while examining this variety.
First, this same reverse is used on the 1829 LM-5 variety as well. Both this LM-4 and the LM-5 in my collection are in about Vey Fine condition but the reverse is in a higher grade then the obverse on both coins. The center obverse details on both are missing where the peripheral obverse details are better. Under the LM-5 page in the half dime book they mention that the reverse die swells in the center causing the reverse of the coins to be slightly concave. Is it possible that on late die stage LM-4 and on LM-5 this caused the center of the obverse to wear faster? Maybe some one has higher grade examples of these variety that can shed some light on the subject because they can tell how much detail these varieties had to start with? Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Second, on the reverse's left wing (eagle's right wing) starting over the second feather left of the shield there is a jagged line into the field that is either always on the die or a crack forming? It is obvious on both my LM-4 and LM-5 examples, and I can almost make it out in the pictures in the book. Can anyone else see this on their LM-4 and LM-5?
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Dick Wells wrote:
Here's a rant: Price guides are generally not even in the ballpark when it comes to bust quarters. Sometimes they are off by a huge amount from what's going on the in the market. I wonder if someone with some good connections can talk to Coin World, Numismatic News, etc.?
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Although Brad Karoleff didn't provide any input for this issue, I will channel Brad in his editor role for the JR Journal and encourage you to write something for the next issue of the journal!
That's it for this issue. Let me know if you have suggestions for improvement and I will try my best to accommodate.
