(editor's note: click on any image to open a larger version of that image)
Brad Karoleff wrote:
Please remember that the Bust Quarter census will be
included in the Spring issue of The John Reich Journal. If you have not
yet forwarded your census information to Glenn Peterson, please do it NOW to be
included in the census. You can send Glenn your information at gpeters (at) tds.net or hard
copies should be sent to Glenn Peterson, 9301 Park West Blvd,
Knoxville, TN 37923.
We still need volunteers for manning the tables at the
EAC/JRCS convention. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow
collectors and see many neat coins! Please let me know if you can help at
bkaroleff (at) yahoo.com.
The membership will be receiving a copy of the complete
index of the John Reich Journal soon. We are proofing the final copy as
you read this and expect it to be in the mail near the end of Feb or the
beginning of March. This will be provided to the membership at no
additional cost as many members have donated money or auction lots to raise the
money for the issue.
The Spring issue of the journal will follow soon
thereafter. We can still use a couple of articles or letters to the
editor for inclusion in the issue. We also would like to have some remembrances
of David Davis to include in the issue. Please send them to me at bkaroleff (at) yahoo.com or
Brad Karoleff C/O Coins +, 225 E 6th St., suite 1, Cincinnati,
OH 45202. Thank
you.
We also need to determine the cover coin for the next volume
of the journal. If anyone has a great photo of a great coin for
consideration you can contact me via email for more information.
Remember, EAC/JRCS is sneaking up on us. Make your
plans to attend NOW!
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Winston Zack wrote:
While I sent Van an email of the image of the 1834 JR-4
Capped Bust Dime with a reverse Cud over UN(IT)ED, I think the rest of the JR Newsletter
recipients would like to see it so they may be able to come across
(cherrypick) one in their future searches.
Jim Matthews sent me some additional information
regarding the rarity of the 1825 JR-4 Retained Cud and it is both of our
understandings that the population of this die state is around, if not more
than 5 pieces extant. I further informed him that the die did not fail
suddenly without first exhibiting signs of die cracking, which he
assumed. The first 1825 JR-4 I picked up (about 3 years ago) shows early
signs of die failure with cracking at stars 8-11. The image I'm providing was
taken with my digital-camera-microscope. I still believe this die state
is very rare as well, but I could be wrong. If anyone else has an example
which shows these die cracks, or a die state slightly more advanced than what I
am sharing please feel free to share photo's if you have any. (This die
crack specimen is a VG-8 coin).
Images are below:
-horz.jpg)
.jpg)
Keep Hunting,
Winston
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David Quint wrote:
With regard to the EAC/JRCS show, I'd like to put it out
there that my guess is that many who want to attend these meetings can not.
Perhaps one of the attendees would be willing to bring a laptop and stream the
thing live on the internet? Easy for me to say since I'm never there, but
perhaps one of those who is planning to be in Buffalo would be willing to do
this (that is, if it indeed is the case that there are many more like me who
won't be in Buffalo that weekend but would like to participate or listen in on
the meeting or presentations)...
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Alan Weinberg wrote in response to an inquiry last week by
Dick Kurtz:
The copy of the Birch cent is
likely the product of the Gallery Mint. They come full blazing red and
prooflike and can be acquired at the ANA or
Baltimore bourses from one single dealer who specializes in them and other
Gallery mint issues. I have to admit they are very attractive and closely
resemble the original. It would be interesting to carry one in pocket change
for a year til it is worn to say VF and is brown.
The Birch cent has eluded me for 4
decades. I have all the other "collectible" 1792 patterns in choice
condition but the Birch cent. There cannot be but 4 or 5 genuine Birch
cents of both types in decent collectible condition (Very Good or better). The
best one is the mint red specimen sold in Garrett and going directly into the
DGP Long Island collection. The last "decent" one (VF) was in Norweb
1988 and is now in the Smithsonian.
Even superbly made electrotypes
are super-rare, the few around have gaping lead exposure on their surfaces. I
do own the ex-Maurice Gould Birch cent electrotype which is Uncirculated and
exhibits no underlying lead even under a good glass. Guess I'll have to die
with that.
Alan V. Weinberg
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Larry Schmidt wrote:
Like Dave Wnuck I too enjoy
collecting early US contemporary counterfeits. From experience gained in
collecting these types of coins there are a few points to consider in the
study of this 1811 Half Eagle counterfeit:
- Contemporary counterfeiters would have wanted their coins to been accepted into general circulation with as little attention brought to them as possible. As a comparison this is certainly true for the vast majority of known contemporary counterfeit Capped Bust Halves, a widely counterfeited coin of the same era. Identified with nearly 350 varieties in Keith Davignon's book Contemporary Counterfeit Capped Bust Halves - Second Edition and a complementing website ccCBHcc.com, these contemporary counterfeits attempted to look like genuine US Mint coinage with appropriately matched obverses and reverses. (Yes, there are varieties with the wrong number of stars and very crude folk art like images, but these are the exceptions.)
- Perhaps this counterfeit was intentionally struck to give the appearance of a worn state as was known to have been intentionally done by 19th century contemporary counterfeiters and continues to today with newly minted supplies of early US coinage fakes.
- Could this 1811 Half Eagle be a more recent counterfeit? It is known that quite unbelievable obverse and reverse counterfeit marriages seemed to have proliferated with foreign minted fakes displaying ignorance of early US coinage (e.g. please see examples of an 1807 dime and an 1809 dime in the below images from my own collection).
-horz.jpg)
Hope these perspectives help in
the study of this very interesting specimen!
Larry Schmidt
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Van Walworth wrote:
Hey Bust Dime guys...
I have this 1836 JR-1 Bust Dime that is in decent condition.
Photos are attached. The interesting thing about this particular
example is that when observing the strike on the obverse, it could be
considered slightly off-center as many of the coins of the era often are... and
the off-center strike is somewhat evident by the missing denticles above Stars
S4-S5-S6-S7 while the rest of the denticles are quite well formed.
On the reverse is a different story... in this case there
are NO denticles and there does not seem to be any off-center strike evidence.
It would appear to me that the forming process of the denticles was
"missed" for this coin? I must admit my lack of knowledge for
the actual minting sequence and do not have a very clear understanding of the
process flow of the forming of the denticles on the obverse and reverse of the
coins. I am hoping that someone in the group with considerable knowledge
can shed some light on this coin as to why it looks like it does.
I look forward to hearing from the sages in the group...
Here are the images:
Van Walworth
JRCS #1300
