Winston Zack wrote:
I am over the moon to share with the JRCS community that as of January 20th, 2023, I finally completed my Capped Bust ‘dime’ die marriage collection. Why is ‘dime’ in quotes? Because these are not your normal John Reich (JR) dime die marriages. Rather these are Zack (Z) hand-made, die struck circulating contemporary counterfeit Bust dime die marriages. And to my knowledge I’m the first person to have ever completed such a collection.
There are only five (5) documented counterfeit Bust dime die marriages of this type. While this is not a lot of varieties, I can assure you that this task is exceptionally challenging as only 19 total examples have been photographically documented in my census.
My first attempt at acquiring an example, an 1833 Z1-A, came in November 2012 but I was outbid and thus did not win it. Nevertheless, as a Bust dime and contemporary counterfeit collector I persevered. My first piece was 1834 Z1-C, a gift from the late Kirk Gorman. This was followed by a rather cruddy and since upgraded fantasy-dated 1838 Z1-D. I then acquired a collection which had 2 other varieties, 1831 Z1-A and 1833 Z1-B (still unique). Finally, earlier this year I was able to acquire the fifth and final variety, an 1833 Z1-A which, and rather amusingly, was the first variety I tried to buy; only 3 examples of this variety have been documented and one of those (the finest) is in the ANS collection. A collage of my collection is included here.
If you have a die struck circulating contemporary counterfeit Bust dime example that I have not documented, or frankly any other die struck circulating contemporary counterfeit U.S. coin, I’d like to hear from you so that I may add your pieces to my growing photographic census and associated documentation for my BAD METAL publications.
Sincerely,
Winston Zack
Also, in addition to the photo above (which I reduced in size to fit it better into this blog post, but clicking the photo will open a larger version), you can click this link for a pdf of Winston's complete "dime" collection: https://mcusercontent.com/74a0e3c37d154d935bdeb2daf/files/c50054d4-977a-bd4e-b01d-4d09f02690c1/WZ_Collection_as_PDF.pdf
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Richard Meaney wrote:
We are about one month from the deadline to submit your collection data for contribution to the 2023 JRCS Census of early and capped bust half dimes. Helping me this year is Sean Kelly (skelly63(at)gmail.com). Sean or I may contact you if you have submitted your collection data and we have questions about one or more coins. I appreciate Sean’s technical expertise and knowledge of the series. I know from experience that assembling the census is mentally taxing and challenging to get the details right. So glad Sean has stepped up to share this task!
As a reminder:
If you own early half dimes or capped bust half dimes, please send your census to:
Richard Meaney: email is richard.meaney(at)yahoo.com or you may snail mail to Richard at this address – 3060 N Lazy Eight Ct, #294, Wasilla, AK 99654.
Your data should include the year, die marriage or remarriage, and grade for each coin you are reporting. The deadline for reporting is February 20, 2023. We usually associate collections with JRCS Membership Number, so if you provide that and your collection is one of the top fifteen (by completion percentage), your data will be labeled with your JRCS number, unless you ask us to anonymize it. Similarly, if you don't have a JRCS number, we will assign a random identifier to your collection (but seriously ...you should join the JRCS!).
Please note that the only component needed for report of grade is the numerical grade. It does not matter if the coin is in a PCGS, ANACS, NGC, CAC, raw, or some other holder. Your assessment of numerical grade is what the census will use. If you have a holed and cleaned coin with details of an XF40, it is totally up to you as to what numerical grade you report. If you want to call it a 40, you may. If you wish to net grade it based on problems and report a lower number, you may do that too.
