We are fortunate to have one contribution this week from Glenn Peterson, who participated in the Early American Coppers-John Reich Collectors Society meeting this past week.
JRCS members,
We had a great time at the Happenings meeting in Colorado Springs. We shared a room with our copper collector colleagues at the happenings event. They showed interesting die marriages of half cents and large cents and we displayed examples of half dimes, dimes, quarters, halves and dollars. We showed 13 examples of the 1829 LM 18 half dime, an excellent number of examples of this R5 marriage. We had coins showing just one crack at stars 2-4 and several with two cracks from the rim below star 2 to the rim above star 4. We had two examples of the die marriage showing retained cuds. The first acquired by me from the Reiver sale had the cud demonstrating a section of the die being laterally displaced but not sinking. The last coin borrowed from a friend showed the area of the coin affected by the cud elevated from the rest of the field. In this retained cud, the piece of the die was beginning to sink and pull away from the rest of the die. Does anyone else have such an advanced cud on the 1829 LM 18?
Dimes displayed included both die marriages of 1824. Beautiful examples in mint state highlighted the 1824/2 overdate. The JR 1 and JR 2 share the same obverse but the more common JR 1 has a defective 1 in the denomination. The quarter 1818 B 9 was highlighted by a beautiful example of the deeply clashed arrowheads on the obverse above star 8.
Half dollars displayed included the 1814 O-106, which in late die states has a reverse crack so strong that it almost appears as though a piece on the coin could snap off from the rest of the coin. The second die marriage displayed was the 1827 O-108. This coin shows a remarriage with the 1828 O-101. The 1827 O-108 prime has F unfilled and many die dots below UNITED. The reverse next used in 1828 has these dots gradually being lapped away and F filling. When it is again used for the 1827 a there remains just one dot below UNITED and the F is filled. We enjoyed showing this die marriage to our copper colleagues who do not get to see many remarriages on their large and half cents. We turned the half dollars over showing the reverses and asked them to sort the coins by die state and upon uprighting the coins the remarriage became apparent.
This year I made sure to get around the room and view the half and large cents. They showed me several die marriages with giant cuds developing on late die states of the copper coins. This is what I most like about the happenings - sharing the coins we love with our colleagues and an exchange of ideas about mint production of coins from that era.
The next day we took a tour of the ANA museum. An ANA employee gave us a special treat. They had a die press similar to that used in the early 1800s. They also had a planchet cutting device to cut the planchet from a metal strip made of Pewter. I was allow to work the dies to make a token depicting Miss Liberty, inscribed "Early American Coppers Colorado Springs 2014." I double struck and even flip over double struck the tokens and even formed one piece with an incomplete planchet cut onto the token. A lot of fun.
Next year the EAC/ JRCS meeting will be in Dallas TX. I urge everyone to attend the meeting - one of the premiere numismatic events of the year.
Glenn Peterson
JRCS members,
We had a great time at the Happenings meeting in Colorado Springs. We shared a room with our copper collector colleagues at the happenings event. They showed interesting die marriages of half cents and large cents and we displayed examples of half dimes, dimes, quarters, halves and dollars. We showed 13 examples of the 1829 LM 18 half dime, an excellent number of examples of this R5 marriage. We had coins showing just one crack at stars 2-4 and several with two cracks from the rim below star 2 to the rim above star 4. We had two examples of the die marriage showing retained cuds. The first acquired by me from the Reiver sale had the cud demonstrating a section of the die being laterally displaced but not sinking. The last coin borrowed from a friend showed the area of the coin affected by the cud elevated from the rest of the field. In this retained cud, the piece of the die was beginning to sink and pull away from the rest of the die. Does anyone else have such an advanced cud on the 1829 LM 18?
Dimes displayed included both die marriages of 1824. Beautiful examples in mint state highlighted the 1824/2 overdate. The JR 1 and JR 2 share the same obverse but the more common JR 1 has a defective 1 in the denomination. The quarter 1818 B 9 was highlighted by a beautiful example of the deeply clashed arrowheads on the obverse above star 8.
Half dollars displayed included the 1814 O-106, which in late die states has a reverse crack so strong that it almost appears as though a piece on the coin could snap off from the rest of the coin. The second die marriage displayed was the 1827 O-108. This coin shows a remarriage with the 1828 O-101. The 1827 O-108 prime has F unfilled and many die dots below UNITED. The reverse next used in 1828 has these dots gradually being lapped away and F filling. When it is again used for the 1827 a there remains just one dot below UNITED and the F is filled. We enjoyed showing this die marriage to our copper colleagues who do not get to see many remarriages on their large and half cents. We turned the half dollars over showing the reverses and asked them to sort the coins by die state and upon uprighting the coins the remarriage became apparent.
This year I made sure to get around the room and view the half and large cents. They showed me several die marriages with giant cuds developing on late die states of the copper coins. This is what I most like about the happenings - sharing the coins we love with our colleagues and an exchange of ideas about mint production of coins from that era.
The next day we took a tour of the ANA museum. An ANA employee gave us a special treat. They had a die press similar to that used in the early 1800s. They also had a planchet cutting device to cut the planchet from a metal strip made of Pewter. I was allow to work the dies to make a token depicting Miss Liberty, inscribed "Early American Coppers Colorado Springs 2014." I double struck and even flip over double struck the tokens and even formed one piece with an incomplete planchet cut onto the token. A lot of fun.
Next year the EAC/ JRCS meeting will be in Dallas TX. I urge everyone to attend the meeting - one of the premiere numismatic events of the year.
Glenn Peterson
