1832 LM-9.2 Crosses Auction Block at Heritage

An unattributed 1832 LM-9.2 half dime (NGC AU-58) recently crossed the auction block at Heritage, where it sold for $4,025 including buyer's premium.  To my knowledge, this is the finest known example of this elusive die remarriage.  Your editor was the winning bidder for the item.  My images of the coin in hand are below.  You can click on an image to view a larger version.

Controversial Figures from National Archives Regarding Mintages?

Brad Higgins visited the National Archives and examined some items of interest.  In another post, you can see a document concerning the employment of John Reich.  In this post, the focus is on information Brad found in a ledger.  Two images from the ledger are posted below.  The identifying information concerning the ledger:  NARA's catalog number:  RG104 G-04-06-3; Title is "Coinage and Expenses 1795-1835."  Interestingly, there were only two pages in the ledger that had any writing on them...and those are the two pages imaged below.

Also included is an image of a warrant that Brad found in "Bullion Waste Book B" which has data from 18 July 1794 to 31 December 1806.

The data are cumulative coinage totals of all denominations through December 1795.  Readers of this blog may wish to compare the mintages reported in this ledger to those reported by various numismatic researchers.

You can click on these images to enlarge the image.

John Reich's Memorandum of Employment

Brad Higgins recently sent me some interesting photographs and information gathered when he was examining documentation of the early Mint. I'm working on a blog post on one set of photographs about mintages, but wanted to post this information more expeditiously.  Brad writes:  I have included "a draft of John Reich's memorandum of employment; I believe the formal copy doesn't exist. It is not in the hand of Patterson. Close examination will reveal that this was a mere scrap of paper when the draft was written in 1807. Mention of this draft can be found in Stewart Witham's tome on Reich."

Here are the images of the scrap paper.  The second image is the "flip side" of the paper shown in the first image.  As with all photos in this blog, if you click on the photos you can view a much larger version.

 

2009-2010 Jules Reiver Literary Award

In the most recent JR Journal (Volume 20, Issue 3) there is a ballot for the Jules Reiver Literary Award.  JRCS members are encouraged to complete the ballot and mail the ballot (along with dues payment) to Steve Crain ASAP so that votes can be counted prior to the Boston ANA in August.

Annual members received a dues notice and an address to which payment and the award ballot should be mailed.  Life members did not receive the address.  Please mail the ballot to the following address:

Steve Crain
PO Box 1680
Windham ME 04062

New Bust Quarter Book

The authors of a new book on bust quarters have developed a brochure that provides information about the upcoming publication.  I've placed an image of that brochure in this blog.  All you need do is click on the image in order to get a large-sized picture that you can view and print.

1824/1 Bust Half Dollar with Cuds?

Dennis sent this information in, pretty interesting stuff.  Readers can click on the photos provided at the end of the text in order to see much larger images of the coin.

I came across an interesting (possible counterfeit) 1824/1 Bust Half Dollar at a local show in N.H.  Maybe the readers of JR Newsletter will be interested in hearing about it. (Pic attached).

The coin has what appear to be large rim cuds on both obverse and reverse.  All of the devices are very sharp (unlike a casting), and the piece has the ring of a genuine coin. It does not look like German Silver, (the color is a natural medium gray).

Both obverse and reverse dies are an exact match to Overton 101. I have made  photographic overlays of this piece and of a genuine O.101, and the match is identical for both obverse and reverse.  The reverse die cracks that appear on late states of a genuine O.101 near the rim cannot be seen on this piece due to the heavy wear.  To my knowledge, no known genuine 101 has die cracks in the areas of the cuds shown in the picture.  Also, no Capped Halves are known to have rim cuds.

Close examination does show slight roughness and pits around the date and some stars (similar to a cast copy), but these could also be due to corrosion.  If this is a cast piece, how could it develop features that look like cuds?  (The letters in the word 'STATES' appear "raised" and weak, as would be expected on a cud.  Also stars 1 and 2 on the obverse are raised.)  Coincidentally, I also own a cast copy of O.101, and as expected, the devices on that piece are very mushy and indistinct, and the surfaces are rough all over.

I suspect that this piece is a counterfeit that was struck from dies prepared from a genuine coin.  Somehow, all of the devices were perfectly transferred to the die from a genuine piece.

I'd be interested to hear what others have to say about this coin.

Regards,
Dennis Villanucci

Editor:  I have added some additional photos to this post.  Dennis sent edge photos and photographic overlays of an 1824 O-101 over his coin to show that they match exactly.

Update to JR Newsletter Management: Efforts to reduce SPAM

I had been receiving SPAM emails from time to time that used the JRNewsletter's "Google Groups" address book.  I figured out today how to reduce and hopefully eliminate that.  I removed every email address from the membership list.  The advantage to that is members should no longer receive SPAM based on their participation here.  The disadvantage is that members will not receive automatic updates about new information posted to the blog.

I encourage each member who is interested in news about the JRCS and bust coinage to mark the JR Newsletter as a "Favorite" or "Bookmark" and check it regularly for updates.  The URL is http://jr-newsletter.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your patience while I figured out how to fix this nagging issue!

Richard