JR Newsletter: 8 March 2020 (488)

In response to John Okerson, Gary Rosner wrote:

Please pass along the linked file to John Okerson, it is on the Classis Head Quarter Eagle Varieties and is available from the Heritage website. They usually have a link to it under any Classis Head Quarter Eagle listing in their auctions. Look it about in their auction archives probably.

Linked file:  https://mcusercontent.com/74a0e3c37d154d935bdeb2daf/files/9020e4da-4c45-43ab-b242-05445acaefd7/cqedvg.pdf

For Classis Head Half Eagles there is the John McCloskey varieties in the ANS Coinage of the Americas Conference “America’s Gold Coinage” book from November 4-5. 1989 which can be borrowed from the ANA library. That’s what I did. Maybe a copy can be found for sale used or from the ANS?

Mostly I just collect the Classic Head Gold varieties of 1835, but I may expand to the other dates in the future.

Enjoy collect them!

Anyone interested is welcome to contact me about this.

Gary Rosner

JRCS#869

orgmr(at)3centnickel.com

--

Another response, this one from Brad Karoleff:

In response to John Okerson's inquiry on the literature available for the Classic Head Gold series.  JRCS member, Daryl Haynor, has written a book on the subject with the input of John McCloskey's research which will be issued SOON.  Keep your eye out for an announcement on how to order your copy.

Brad Karoleff

------

Rich Uhrich wrote:

I have four Bust coins in the upcoming Stacks Bowers auction, all of which go up for sale on March 24.  Since the descriptions are very brief, I would like to add some additional information.

Lot 21313 - - 1833 Capped Bust Half Dime LM-3.4 R2 AU58 PCGS.  This coin has very attractive toning, especially on a capped bust half dime.

Lot 21314 - - 1835 Capped Bust Half Dime LM-5.1 R3 AU55 PCGS.  This is a legitimate LM-5.1 as verified by Capped Bust Half Dime expert Richard Meaney.  Some coins certified as LM-5.1 are in fact LM-5.2 as they have the die crack on the reverse, but this coin shows no trace of the die crack.

Lot 21538 - - 1818 Bust Quarter B-6 R4+ VG10 PCGS.  This is an early die stage (1/1) described by Tompkins as "The earliest die stage with no reverse cracks seems to be the rarest one to acquire."

Lot 21539 - - 1818 Bust Quarter B-9 R5- VG8 PCGS.  This is an early die state without the clashed arrowheads.

JR Newsletter: 1 March 2020 (487)

John Okerson wrote:

I am looking for guidance before embarking on a multi-year purchase plan of USA Gold Classic Head coins – 1834-1839.   So far, I have not found any numismatic literature or guidance on this short series.  My intention is to acquire both the ¼ and the ½ eagle coins most likely without the mintmarks for the next few years.  I am looking in the XF45-AU55 range but eye appeal is quite important to me.

 Suggestions appreciated.

John Okerson

Arlington, TN

------

David Perkins wrote:

I was looking at the new threads posted on the PCGS Forum on Friday afternoon, February 28 and came across one titled, “Heads Up Bust Half Collectors.”  This turned out to be a fun one if you enjoy early silver.  It was posted under the PCGS Forum name “Topdollarpaid.”  A link is provided below to this Forum posting.

The post was and is basically a photo of four rolls (!!!) of Capped Bust and Reeded Edge half dollars all laid out on a black background.  There was also a photo of the four rolls (coin tubes) where you could see the edges of the half dollars.  A quick count yielded at least four RE half dollars.  All are “raw” and none were in plastic holders, the “old fashioned way.”  I didn’t count the number of coins total….

If you’ve never done or seen this, laying out 100 or more early silver coins at once is quite a sight.  The last time I did this was when Andy Lustig and I were in the process of purchasing the Warren Miller Collection of Early U.S. Silver Dollars 1794 to 1803, a total of 169 PCGS slabbed early dollars.  All 169 early dollars were laid out on Warren’s dining room table!   

Here are the two photos of the half dollars courtesy of Randy Conway of Sun City Coin in California.  

Here is a link to the posting on the PCGS Forum:  https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1033699/heads-up-bust-half-collectors#latest .  

Hope you enjoy. 

W. David Perkins

Centennial, CO

wdperki(at)attglobal.net

www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com

------

Correspondence with Patrick Bain clarified that the links he provided on the most popular ebay items in the categories of bust coinage (16 February JR Newsletter, #485:  https://jr-newsletter.blogspot.com/2020/02/jr-newsletter-16-february-2020-485.html) can be used as bookmarks, as they will always take you to the current, most popular auctions on ebay.  Patrick wrote that he also uses a link for coin books, which he collects:

“Coin publication auctions --> CoinBooks

Most of the time it's just Whitman and Dansco albums, but there's always at least 2 really good books I find at auction every week from it!! really!! Usually rare and out of print coin books.

Note these are auctions, not buy it now items, as auctions can usually be gotten for less than buy it now prices.”

Patrick can customize searches to eliminate albums.  He can modify coin searches for PCGS only or NGC only or a host of other combinations.  He volunteered that if anyone is interested in other searches, just let him know!

------

Greg Cohen wrote:

Please find linked a Press Release regarding the consignment and upcoming sale of the BigMo Collection of Civil War era coinage. This is a world class specialized collection that features many of the finest known examples of their respective issues. They will be sold on day one of our two-day Regency Auction May 16 and 17, 2020 in New Orleans.

For further information about the collection, please email info(at)legendauctions.com. For high resolution images, contact the firm’s art director, Patrick Braswell via email at Patrick(at)legendauctions.com.

Thank you very much for your consideration to these matters.

Greg Cohen

Senior Numismatist

Legend Rare Coin Auctions

Office: 732-935-1168

LINK HERE:  https://mcusercontent.com/74a0e3c37d154d935bdeb2daf/files/8baa71cc-c043-4ff2-ae7b-e2d697fae6e9/BigMo_Collection_Press_Release.pdf------

JR Newsletter: 23 February 2020 (486)

David Perkins wrote:

Yesterday I was going through a box of early dollar items and came across this clipping, likely originally from Coin World or Numismatic News.  The clipping / photo is undated. It was found in a group of items given to me by the late Bob Stark, an early dollar collector, researcher, and author.

The photo is of a 1795 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar with 3 Leaves under the eagle’s wings, “transformed into a badge for some unknown reason” as captioned.  

The coin appears to grade Extra Fine, “plus or minus.”  This would roughly be a $15-20,000 coin today if graded and in a holder!

It appears to be struck from the relatively common BB-27, B-5 die marriage.  Thank goodness it is not struck from an extremely rare die marriage….  

If anyone has seen this item “in person” or knows anything about it please contact me at my e-mail address below.  Thanks.

W. David Perkins

Centennial, CO

wdperki@attglobal.net

www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com

JR Newsletter: 16 February 2020 (485)

Patrick Bain wrote:

For members who buy Bust coins on eBay here are some report links to a website that sorts coin auctions by watch count.

Basically it lists the most popular auctions in order first.

Each auction on eBay has a watch count which this website uses to sort the results.

An example of how it can help from a while back:

I had seen an 1824 dime in my regular searches but didn't think anything of it and didn't put it on my watch list.

Then it showed on this report and had something like 20 watchers.

So I thought why does this have 20 watchers??  I clicked on it and looked at the reverse and realized it 

was a JR-2 dime variety and much rarer.

These ensure you don't miss any good auctions!

You are seeing what all of eBay says are the most popular Bust coin auctions.

Most Popular Bust Silver Coin Auctions on Ebay 

Bust Half Dimes -->  HalfDimes

Bust Dimes -->  Dimes

Bust Quarters --> Quarters

Bust Half Dollars --> HalfDollars

Bust Dollars -->  Dollars

JR Newsletter: 9 February 2020 (484)

We had a number of responses to Rick A’s input last week of an odd half dime.

James Rosen wrote:

Rick,

You have probably heard from a number of people that your 1833 half dime is no good.  Star 1 is in a position related to the bust that is not present in any obverse dies of 1833, not even close.  The date numerals look very suspicious in their engraving, especially the 3s. Without going into too much detail about the reverse, the 2^nd  S in States is way too far left of the s in Pluribus to match any of the known 33 reverses.  The shape of the letters is not right, especially the last A in America. The position of the 2^nd C is wrong, as none of the 1833 reverses have this C touching the stem. I can’t comment about some of the other letters in the coin as the photo is not all that great, but you have enough bad things going on with this coin to make a definitive diagnosis.

Sorry you got burned…but hopefully the seller has a return policy. 

Jim Rosen

JRCS # 1510

--

Alan Bricker wrote:

In response to Rick A.'s post in the February 2nd issue, I can affirm from the pictures that this 1833 half dime is a fairly obvious counterfeit: zero circulation indicators, mushy numerals and letters, non-compliant date punches, and so forth. The reverse resembles Reverse V, which was used only with one die marriage of 1834-dated half dimes. In the November 24th issue of JRNewsletter, I reported on a counterfeit 1832-dated half dime having the same counterfeit reverse paired with a counterfeit obverse not matching any genuine obverse die. The current case is very similar, having a known counterfeit reverse and a non-compliant 1833-dated obverse. This piece is very likely to be significantly underweight, and I conclude that both counterfeits likely originated from one source.

Alan Bricker

--

Randall Snyder wrote:

Definitely a counterfeit half dime. The seller also has an 1835 and 1837 for sale. All 3 share the same diagnostic points.

--

And Rick A wrote back (after corresponding with the seller):

See below for the seller’s response. Yesterday he listed an 1835 & 1837 bust half dime. These two also have the same reverse & condition of the 1833 and also don’t match any known variety!!! The seller is from Newport News, VA. He also sold a 1967 3C silver on Saturday that went for around $200 which I believe was also counterfeit and the “8” is much smaller than usual.

 AM TOTALLY UNSURE OF WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!!! SO I HAVE BEEN IN THE JEWELRY/METALS/COIN BUSINESS FOR 40 YEARS, I HAVE BOUGHT AND SOLD ANYTHING FROM A SIMPLE 1909SVDB LINCOLN, TO A COMPLETE SET OF MORGAN DOLLARS... NEVER BEFORE HAVE I HEARD OF SUCH A THING AS SEEING A PHOTO OF AN ITEM AND THEN DECIDING THAT IT IS A REPLICA AND OR FAKE EXAMPLE... I ALSO KNOW HOW TO CHECK ITEMS WHEN I AM PURCHASING THEM!!! THESE COINS WERE RESEARCHED, MEASURED, WEIGHED, AND INSPECTED FOR DETAILS OF DATES, DATE SIZE, DENOMINATION, AND SIZE OF DENOMINATION MARKS, COMPOSITION, ECT ECT ECT!!! ALL SPECS CAME BACK JUST FINE!!! I ALSO PERSONALLY LOOKED ON HERITAGE AND FOUND SAID SAME EXAMPLES!!! AND I RECOMMEND THAT YOU IN THE FUTURE DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE BIDDING!!! I WISH IT WAS THAT EASY TO HAVE AN "EXPERT" ON SPEED DIAL TO CALL AND SOLVE ALL COIN QUESTIONS SO EASILY!!! I AM NOT SURE WHAT I WILL DO IN THIS SITUATION!!! I WILL THINK ON IT, AND GET BACK TO YOU!!! REGARDS ED S!!!

 Rick A.

JR Newsletter: 2 February 2020 (483)

Rick A wrote:

Can you help identify this variety or know a contact who can? I have basically completed bust dimes by variety and bust halves by Red Book variety and decided to start bust half dimes by Red Book variety. I won this last night on eBay just needing a nice 1833 bust half dime. My local coin dealer is open Tuesday-Saturday and has the Bust Half Dime book on varieties. However looking at pictures of all the 1833 half dimes either in the Jules Reiver Collection and/or on Heritage today to determine the variety I believe this could be a counterfeit!! At first, I thought it might be an LM-1 but the period is large and position of S2 is questionable. The obverse has star 1 near the bust which I cannot find on any 1833 bust half dime!??  It is item 193321083632 from seller “shieler123”. I would appreciate any advice or info you can provide.

Editor adds:  This link takes you to the coin on ebay  Click to see coin on Ebay

Sincerely,

Rick A

JR Newsletter: 26 January 2020 (482)

Brad Karoleff wrote:

I am looking for submissions to be included in the next issue of The John Reich Journal. If you are working on anything that you would like to see published in our journal please get in touch with me. I look forward to seeing what everyone is up to!  Contact me at bkaroleff(at)yahoo.com 

Thanks 

Brad 

------

David Perkins wrote:

I found this article (click on the images below) and update the other day in a box of Numismatic items I have in my basement.  I often tear out or clip items like this.  But I usually would have tucked something like in my Overton / Parsley book for Capped Bust Half Dollars.  On the other hand, this made it easy to find as it was on the "top of the stack."

I thought it would be a fun item for JR News readers and collectors of the CBHs who hadn't seen this or long ago forgot they had (!).  This article was published in Numismatic News March 6, 2001 after the 3rd Edition of the Overton / Parsley book had been first published in 1990.  I found interesting that these rarity rating changes had been researched and discussed for a decade or so. 

David Finkelstein was listed as the contact "for additional information."  David is still active and busy - he gave the JRCS Meeting presentation at the 2020 FUN show earlier this month (along with Chris Pilliod).

Hope you enjoy this!  

Lastly, I've posted a fair number of new items on my website.  The link is below.

W. David Perkins

Centennial, CO

www.davidperkinsrarecoins.com

wdperki(at)attglobal.net