Good morning, everyone - hope you all had a wonderful weekend (wherever you are.) My weekend involved finding an example of a really interesting die variety - one I've never found "in the wild" before: the 1945 P Walking Liberty Half Dollar "Sunburst" variety. It exhibits straight lines radiating over and past Liberty's right (viewer's left) shoulder and arm. This particular coin also shows a mostly missing Designer's Initials on the reverse as well. Here is a link to the Numismatic News article discussing the new discovery of the die variety: LINK I see where NGC attributes the variety (HERE is the link to their Variety Plus page for WL Halves.) Census shows 23 total graded examples with the lowest being AU53 and the highest MS64. I do not see a link on PCGS's Price Guide page for this particular variety, so it's possible they do not currently attribute it. I found it hiding (in plain sight) in a LCS stock box. Who knows how long it's been sitting there, unnoticed and under appreciated. Thanks for stopping by! If you have any more information on this relatively newly discovered die variety, or would like to post your own examples, feel free to do so.
Yeah. With the help of the article, I see the cracks. This is a good way of showing something like this, referencing it, as such. Good work, here.
Pretty cool. I wonder what caused those lines on the die? Also, someone should think of a more accurate name for the variety. Those lines clearly do not radiate from the sun. They’re nearly perpendicular to the actual sun rays.
"The exact cause of this phenomenon remains uncertain, but it has been suggested that these are stress fractures in the die." Seems reasonable.
I am currently working on the series and never heard of it. Thanks for the post and the reference. That really did help guide the eyes.
Thanks everyone! It's been a really fun day of variety hunting - so far I've found this 1945 "Sunburst", a 1945 Walking Liberty Half (missing designer initials), a 1942 Walking Liberty Half DDO (FS-101), an 1877 S/Horizontal S Seated Quarter, an 1818 Overton 104a Bust Half, and an 1851/1851 O $2 1/2 Gold (although according to the PCGS website, the overdates are more common than the non-overdate.) Phew! I'm beat!
Nice find!! I'm glad to see another hunter looking for them. I found my example, back before this became a new listed variety. I had posted images of it over on the PCGS forums and got a lot of feedback. I just kept it in a BCW Display slab until it made some news. I still have it and need to send it in to NGC for grading.
@jtlee WOW, lucky you--what a great looking coin and with that VP-001 Designation it should really be a hot item if you ever auctioned it!
@stldanceartist great find--especially with the wear and toning, making it--at least for me from the photo, before enlargement--a little difficult to navigate to that area without first having reviewed the 2 Reference Links. Having read the Numismatic News article, I would agree with the assessment that these Radiating Lines were due to Die Fatigue, the inception point being the transition of the sunken relief of Liberty's Right Arm/shoulder and the Banner behind it--see @jtlee321 coin posted above and observe that at least 3 of the Radiating Lines also appear on her Arm. I would also agree with @bsowa1029 that the description "Sunburst" could be more descriptive (could be confused with the design's Rising Sun with Rays).
Thanks, this is one that I am not planning on selling. The funny thing is, when I originally bought it, I did not notice the die cracks until much later on.
Thanks again for this post. I went looking thru my Walkers tonight. Lo and behold there it was. I'd have never know had it not been for your post!