A number of contributions this week!
Brad Karoleff wrote:
We still need a volunteer to host the next JRCS meeting at
the Baltimore convention on Friday afternoon at 4 PM.
Also, if anyone wants to give a short presentation there we would be grateful.
Please let me know if you can help. Bkaroleff (at) yahoo.com
Also, if anyone wants to give a short presentation there we would be grateful.
Please let me know if you can help. Bkaroleff (at) yahoo.com
Brad
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Michael Sullivan wrote:
Fellow JRCS Members and, hopefully, bibliophiles -- below
is an image of one my most recent project to bind my JRCS
Journals. The binding was executed by The Harcourt Bindery in
Boston. The binding is
black grained cloth with dark blue spine labels including my personalization on
the front board. Bound into this set of JRCS Journals is many
elements of club ephemera (supplements, voting documents for articles of the
year, the club bylaws, etc.). I would encourage any serious
early coinage collector to have their set of JR Journals bound to preserve a
phenomenal collection of information and insights not found in standard
reference works.
For perspective, David Davis' personal set of the first ten
volumes of the JR Journal bound in leather sold for $1400 in the January
2012 Kolbe-Fanning Auction. On a personal note, I more
frequent bound sets of periodicals than loose issues. If you
need some recommendations on bookbinders, contact me.
Michael Sullivan
Numisbookmjs (at) gmail.com
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Louis Scuderi wrote:
JR News readers,
I am in the process of writing up some research on off
center/double struck capped bust dimes, and specifically on multiple examples
of the 1823 JR1. I have images of several specimens but have been unable to
find an image of Russ Logan's example. This specimen was in the Bowers and
Merena 2002 sale of the The Collections of Russell J. Logan & Gilbert
G. Steinberg and Part III of the Jay Roe
Collection and listed as Lot 2047 (1823/2 Capped Bust Dime
JR-1. Rarity-3. Small E's. G-4). It was described as:
"Double Struck. The first strike was approximately 40%
off-center at 1:00 and rotated 10
counter clockwise from the final position of the second strike. Light gray with
prominent hairlines and an area of brownish discoloration at center of the
obverse. The reverse is weak and grades just AG-3. The reverse die crack
is not visible on this example.
Purchased August 1993 from Henry Hilgard."
Unfortunately the image attached to the lot is incorrect and
has been so since the auction was first listed back in 2002. I also can not
find my copy of the sale catalog.
I have two requests. First, if anyone (perhaps the current
owner) has high quality images of the coin that they would be willing to share
I would greatly appreciate having them and would provide acknowledgment (if
desired) in the JRJ when the paper is published. Alternatively a high quality
scan of the catalog might work assuming the details can be clearly seen.
My second request is for information (and images) on any
additional specimens that you might be aware of. I currently have images of
three specimens:
1) PCGS - Genuine
(Graffiti - AG Details) #4498.98/27972278
2) NCS - #5023211-005.
2006 June Long Beach Signature Auction #408, Lot
1018. (1823/2 10C Small Es--Double Struck, First Strike 45% Off Center,
Improperly Cleaned--NCS. Good Details).
3) PCGS mint error VG08 holder with d/so 50% o/c
If you know of any others and are willing to share
information and images that would be greatly appreciated and acknowledged.
If you can help contact me at cirque1 (at) gmail.com
Thanks,
Louis Scuderi
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Jim Matthews wrote:
I've been collecting Capped Bust
dimes since the authors published the Dime reference in 1984. One of the areas
that has always fascinated me was the fact that contemporary counterfeit Capped
Bust dimes were also made much in the same style (and likely same
counterfeiters) as the commonly seen Capped Bust half dollars of the 1820s and
1830s. One troubling aspect of the dime denomination is how frustratingly rare
they are. I've usually tried to buy all I could find and have asked other
specialists if they have any examples--or if they have even seen any examples!
More often than not the answer is no. It would seem, given how prohibitively
rare these early counterfeit dimes are, that most likely not that many were
struck. Few specialists have even a single example of one of these contemporary
counterfeit dimes.
I have included a picture of an
1831 contemporary counterfeit Capped Bust dime (below) that I purchased this year from
another specialist who has been seeking these for many years. Notice how crude
the stars are, and irregular placement especially along the right side of the
obverse. Similarly the date punches are not quite right, being too small and
too low, with the figures clearly a different number font than those used at
the Philadelphia Mint. On the reverse, the eagle is a trifle irregular too,
along with the arrows and comical placement of the legend
spacing--creating another run-on STATESOF. Nothing about this is quite right,
and any dime specialist today would have no difficulty in knowing this coin was
not a U.S. Mint product.
So why make a counterfeit dime?
Well, for the money of course! While 10 cents today may not buy much, back in
the 1830s and 1840s it certainly did. In fact for many people in these early years
of our history, 50 cents was a days pay. If a counterfeiter could make enough
coinage, and get it salted into circulation without being caught, there was
considerable profit to be had. Today through the expertise of Keith Davignon an
entire reference work has been published by him entitled "Contemporary
Counterfeit Capped Bust Half Dollars" which brings to light much
information on this period and offers photographs and descriptions of the
various known counterfeit issues by die variety. The style, metallic content
and appearance of the half dollars implies that the same makers may well have
issued the counterfeit dimes as well.
We know that literacy in the
general populace was certainly not that high when these were made. Thus fooling
a store clerk or merchant with a counterfeit coin would have been fairly easy,
certainly easy enough to continue trying given the number of counterfeit Capped
Bust half dollars known today.
I'm planning on writing a more
extensive article for the John Reich Journal on each of these counterfeit early
dimes that I've acquired, along with further details and photographs. Given
what I've learned up to this point, there simply aren't enough coins around to
do a reference work, and most seem to be unique or nearly so. I consider these
to be akin to folk art, where the ungodly took their talents and created
primitive dies, stirred up a batch of seething pot metal (base metals which
appeared at least silver-white in color) and created planchets which could be
struck.
If any collectors have an example
of one of these contemporary counterfeit Capped Bust dimes and would like to
share their information with me I would appreciate it.
I can be reached at
bustdollar (at) yahoo.com
Jim
(editor's note: click on the image to open a larger version of the image)
