A Bust Half Dollar that is. Well that’s what I’m talking about here. Lol. Here’s an 1814 Capped Bust Half. It was designed by John Reich, a German immigrant who was an engraver at the Mint for 10 years, 1807-1817. The Bust designed was used on several denominations for about 30 years. He was the first artist to include this design on gold and silver coins. She’s used but a nice VG coin I’d say. I don’t recall noticing before but there is a strong die clash on the obverse. The entire design around the obverse rim looked like a worn die to me but I now believe it to be part of the clash from the reverse. The most noticeable part of the clash is under her bust and just above the date. It also shows on both sides of Liberty. It’s above her breast and behind her hair on her shoulders. Below her neck, just above the date, the letters are backwards. This is the entire ribbon on the reverse that reads E PLURIBUS UNUM. Everything else is normal. Not a 4 over 3 in the date and not an E over A in STATES. But despite the wear it’s a nice full die clash on a 210 year old coin, which is one of the early dates for history of US coins. I’m not sure of what to make of that worn but still present strip of metal from the Eagles wing on the left of the coin going up to the ribbon.
Nice circulated bustie. The raised line above the eagle's wing is from the die...I don't know the Overton off the top of my head but I think I have a similar piece, this should make for an easy ID. Edit: O-103, R.1
Super cool clash!! I love the worn look also. Great piece with lots of character! Thanks for sharing.
The die is broken on the left side of the scroll. It sank there which caused the weak strike on the eagle's wing and Ms. Liberty's bust. The coin probably looked like that the day it was minted. Check out the 13th star for the John Reich notch. It's almost lost from sight because of the die failure on the outermost star point. As for John Reich, here is one of his early bust half dollars, an 1807. This is the "50 over 20" variety, on the reverse, which is fairly common.
Did someone say he liked Busts? Here's another example of the 1814 O-103 with the accompanying die gouge.
My example. It's interesting how the OP's example shows lettering in the scroll clash, I can't see much at all on mine even with a loupe...I presume a result of a greater (or lesser?) number of clashes with no planchet between?
Possibly because his is a higher grade coin. Sometimes on strong clashes like this you can also see the letters of LIBERTY in the stripes on the shield on the reverse.
Hey all, just looking at this coin and looking to get some opinions on if it is real or fake? I’m new to this so any insight would be appreciated. Thank you.
Hi Tom…. Two things… we can’t see your coin. But start yourself a new thread. Folks tend to ignore posts that are in other peoples thread…. Just to to the top of the page and click the new message box. At the bottom of that message window you see a button to upload a file. That’s where you want to insert your coin photo…. Welcome to CT.
