Exhibit: 1840 (O) 50C Reverse of 1838 ,A date without a home.

A hard to come by issue, the 1840 Medium Letters Seated Liberty Half was struck at the New Orleans Mint without a mintmark , using an old open claws reverse die intended & possibly used for 1839 O Capped Bust Reeded Edge Half Dollar.

The John Reich obverse & reverse designed dies & of the Capped Bust Half had been sent to New Orleans in 1839 . The only mint marked Capped Bust halves had the “O” mintmark on the obverses of the coins.

One of the reverse dies in New Orleans was saved for use in 1840.Back then the goverment was a bit more cost concious with the tax payers money & did not like to waste perfetly good dies.The old-style reverse die was paired with the newly designed but 2nd year Seated Liberty obverses.
What came of this new pairing was a new obverse that carried the mint marks on the reverse; but an older reverse die that put the mint marks on the obverse. Thus flip flopping where the mint marks should have been.

The result is refered to as the type III, 1840 (O) with no mintmark.

The noticeable difference is not that it doesn’t have a mintmark since the coins minted in Philadelphia that didnt have a mint mark . But by the size of the Eagle & letters on the reverse.Another way to identify this type is by the reverse having multiple die breaks that are always seen on this type & the open claws of the eagle.

This unique year has halves with the reverse of coinage like that of 1838 & is usually referred to as the reverse of 1838 even though the coins came from 1839 dated dies.

One of my favorite varieties & always a joy to come across.

 

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great post and coin

 

Very interesting!! I learned something today. Thanks. (And I voted for this thread.)

 

Budgood throwing down! Great info! Thanks.

 

Nice Coin. Thanks for the post!

 

Ahhhh, Budgood pulls yet another trick from his sleeve.
Nice one Jason !!

 

Great info.....:thumb:

 

Thats cool. One Ive never heard of before.

 

That reverse die DOES come paired with an 1839 O obverse.

 

Boy - I must have really been sleep walking when I missed this. Great Thread. The data on the dies is very facinating. Thanks for adding this!
BTW - Grear Shot. Camera and Software?

Ruben

 

why is this not showing up as new posts?

 

Awesome coin and great post!

 

Excellent post and history!

 

I have a couple of questions on this coin. First, what exactly is a "open claws reverse die". Why is it called "Open Claws". My second question seems obvious to me, but must have a similarly obvious answer. How does anyone know when looking at a 1840 without a mint mark that the coin wasn't from Philidelphia?

Ruben

 

BTW - great coin. I'm wondering that the photo shows some kind of hair line pattern on the obverse is actually interesting. It is a parabala pattern. Any ideas of its origin?

Ruben

 

The reverse of the reeded edge Capped Bust half dollars reverse die has an Eagle with its claws open over the arrows & branch.
Seated Half Dollars reverse Eagle has closed claws grasping the arrows & branch.Check the last picture to compare.


Because of the reverse , its kinda what this thread is about.
The knowledge behind the dies has been recorded & is a known fact.

 

Great post and history! Learning is almost as fun as getting a new coin!

Jim

 

Look at the last two pictures in the original post. The one on the left is the open claws (Capped bust half die) notice how the claws of the talons almost point down at the words HALF DOLLAR. Then look at the one on the right That is a closed claws (seated Liberty reverse die) on it the talons are more tightly closed and the claws curve back up around the olive branch. The ope claws is simply called that in comparison to the new reverse with more tightly closed claws.

Because this particlar reverse die, with its identifying die cracks also comes paired with an 1839 O obverse die. The reverse is obviously a capped bust half rev die (Open claws, much larger shield on the eagles breast, larger lettering font that is positioned much closer to the denticals.) and it was obviously well used because of the die cracks. When compared to the 1839 Philadelphia capped bust halves no match was found but when they compared it to the New Orleans 1839 halves they did find a match. And since there would be no reason to send the old New Orleans reverse back to Philadelphia it is a pretty safe assumption that the 1840 Medium letter halves (capped bust rev) were made in New Orleans.

 

Thanks. So there is no superficial way to know by mint mark, but if you see an 1840 open clawed back on the Seated Half, then you can be pretty sure it was a New Orleans issue. Just one more ignorant question. Where was the mint mark on the 1839 or 1838 bust half?

Ruben