Alright, so here's my 1838 LC that I bought around turkey day, this book is tough when first starting off because I don't know a lot of the terms(browlock, Broken E, crumbling??) After looking through the different dies, I believe this is die #4, 38-4, which is an R-1. Am I correct?
I am far from a copper die marriage expert but in my opinion your coin is an 1838 N-4, R-1, N-4 refers to the 4th die marriage for 1838 (or 1838-4) and the N stands for Newcomb who is the author responsible for the definitive work on the topic, similar to the way Overton numbers are used for Bust Half Dollars. The obverse die has some characteristic which can be helpful in attibuting this year. You'll notice it has a short 1 in date (reference chart on page 292 of The CENT Book) and compare N-5 to N-4 to find the difference between the short and longs 1's. This die marriage also has the broken E in LIBERTY, referring to the broken upper left serif. It also has a Cracked Head Hub, (some working obverse dies were hubbed from a hub die with a light crack through Liberty's head, from just below center dot, through ear, left arm of Y, hair, second strand of beads, into the upper lobe of the hairbun). This is the only die marriage for the year with this combination but you'll also want to use other attribution skills, such as star to dentil positions, star to corenet, date position, letter to dentil positions, and leaf to letter positions, and occasionally die cracks (your coin has a light die crack from dentil, past S9, to hair, which later progresses into a heavier crack), this die crack only appears on this die marriage, but do not rely on it). This will lead you to confirm your coin as a 1838, N-4. And for the examples of terms you listed, browlock refers to the lock of hair over Lady Liberty's forehead where here eyebrow would be, which can sometimes be protrude from the forehead or fuse to the coronet, Broken E was explained earlier, and crumbling is die deterioration " causing the designs to be less well defined and resulting in weakness or confluence of letter, leaves, numerals, and other devices". I do not believe this is something that is limited to early copper, as it occurs on most early coinage as the die wears and even on later coinage to a lesser degree in most cases, but this is a term that I have only heard used when referring to early copper coinage. I would love to hear if a copper guru could confirm this. Jesse
