David
Finkelstein starts this week's JR Newsletter off with an original contribution,
"Albion Cox’s Surety Bond"
The link to David's article is here: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/74a0e3c37d154d935bdeb2daf/files/DJF_MInt_Cox_Surety_Bond.pdf
------
David
Perkins wrote with news and a photo:
1799 B-10, BB-163 Dollar with Shattered
Reverse
On Wednesday of this week I had the
opportunity to view an “old time” Type Collection of 18th through 20
th Century U.S. Coins. Most of the coins in this collection were
raw, and all were very nice. The collection was started by the
collector’s father, probably between 1920 and 1940. His father had a
great eye.
The early U.S.
silver dollar type coins consisted simply of a 1795 Flowing Hair Dollar and a
1799 Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle Dollar, and were both raw and stored in old
Kraft type 2X2 envelopes.
As I turned over the 1799 Dollar to view the
reverse my immediate reaction was “WOW!” This specimen was struck from a
shattered reverse die, Bowers Die State IV or slightly later. The photo
does not do the coin justice – the myriad of die cracks literally jumped out at
me, even without a glass. Here is the description of Bowers Die State IV
(from the QDB silver dollar book):
Die State IV. Obverse crack extends
to outside ray of star 10. On reverse, additional cracks develop:
Vertically from border through O, between clouds 7 and 8, toward eagle’s head,
splits, and branch goes left through a star. Crack from wing, through
right ribbon end, into field to left of branch end. Crack from branch to
eagle’s let to tail. Crack from interior of branch upward to below
ER. Crack from top of A, down through TES, to cloud 5, splits, two cracks
go down and to the left, and one goes to right. The die could not have
survived long beyond this point. Rare die state.
I love late die states! This one is
spectacular.
The reverse die for 1799 B-10, BB-163 was only
used once, to create this die marriage. On the other hand, this was the
fifth use of the obverse die, which was used in creating a total of six 1799
dated die marriages!
I was also reminded of the pleasure of viewing
and handling a large 200 plus year old coin outside of holder. In this
case, I enjoyed viewing many coins not in holders in this old time
collection.
W. David Perkins
Centennial, CO
Centennial, CO
(if you click on this photo, it will open a larger version)
------
Finally, Dick Kurtz wrote:
Mention was made at the JRCS meeting at the
recent ANA show that future census surveys
will revert to the "15 top collections" format. Apparently someone
(more than one?) was so incensed at Steve Crain's approach that he/she
threatened to quit our organization. Wow! For me, I thought Steve's change,
that is listing the totals in multiple grades, was a step in the right
direction. Am I alone in my approval of the new approach? I can live with
either format, but like the new one best.
Also, a word about the 1815 half dollar article. I believed for a long time that the overdate was actually a 15 over an inverted 5, but the authors proved that not to be the case. I'm looking forward to the follow-on article.
Dick Kurtz, 049
Also, a word about the 1815 half dollar article. I believed for a long time that the overdate was actually a 15 over an inverted 5, but the authors proved that not to be the case. I'm looking forward to the follow-on article.
Dick Kurtz, 049
