Doug, I may be wrong but I believe that the area you circled on the Obverse is the remnants of a Die Clash! It also appears that in an attempt to remove the evidence of the Die Clash, a Mint employee went a little overboard in the grinding down and polishing of the Die. I have seen similar surface on many other coins including Bust Halves. If you compare the area to the Reverse, you can see that it has he outlines of the Eagle's Wing and of the Motto ribbon. Also, I can not see any evidence whatsoever that the coin is a counterfeit! I do agree that it has been whizzed and over-dipped.
Thanks for pointing that out. One of the reasons I thought it looked fake. At a recent coin show I was at, an old man was trying to sell a coin that looked alot like this one. I was right there and overheard a dealer telling him it was a counterfeit. The old man went to the next table, and that dealer said that some of those coins were made a few years later, using the original dies. So he bought it. Who knows...
To be quite honest I can't tell from the pics that it has been whizzed - can't tell it hasn't been either. That's besides the point. But if that depression was caused by die polishing, that has to be the world's record for die polishing. And if you are correct, and you might be, then there should be quite a few other examples of this date with the same feature. So I would ask you Bust half guys this - is the variety listed any of the Bust half books. For if its due to die polishing, it should be.
Yes that is, I believe a die clash. However, the differences in the position so the hair curls and stars, along with the date are the reasons for Overton's book. every die was hand made and punched. Many different varieties.
That coin looks also to me to be a recent casting, it appears to have a couple of holes at the top left of her head. Also the surface doesn't look like a coin that was struck, it has no aging at all or polishing of any sort. The wavy appearance on the obverse seems to be casting clues as well, not to mention the shaky looking rim.
I don't know that the coin in question is a counterfeit. The things that might seem to suggest that to me is the texture of the surfaces on the coin, particularly the Obverse...it looks a little too textured. Those little pinhole things to the left above the head look like some kind of porosity. Maybe it had some bad corrosive damage like from PVC or something. As for the "wrinkle", I don't believe that's from clashed dies. I've seen this mark or wrinkle on many capped bust halves. Here's my theory...I think it's just from where the wing of the eagle on the reverse was struck hard. On the obverse, there is no raised design element close to the wing there, so that part of the die isn't pushing back on the reverse die as hard as where a raised design element is, hence, you get the obverse field mark in question. What do you think? I've attached a picture of one of my bust halves that has this mark in the exact same location. I'm sorry that it's hard to see in my picture. I tried to adjust the brightness and contrast so that it would show up a little better. Even if it is authentic, it is a harshly cleaned AU coin that's been made up in an attempt to look like an MS coin. Good for discussion though! :thumb:
tcore, Die Clashing or image transfer whether from Die to Die or through the coin, are pretty similar in what is left on the coin! It is pretty much the same thing that you see on the Reverses of many Lincoln Cents where the image of Lincoln can been seen and is referred to as a Ghost Image.
When I saw that feature, I thought die sinking, like you'd see on a large cent. I am very ignorant on this series, however...Mike
I'd still like to know if any of the Bust half books specifically mention this wrinkle, depression or whatever it is. I can't believe that such an obvious diagnostic would be ignored.
