That is a very nice set and I learned something. I didn't realize that the eagle 's tongue shows on the Reverse of '38 on the 1840-(O). I usually look for the narrow wing tips on the reverse of '38. Here's mine, also a WB-4 like yours is. The WB-4 is actually a common die marriage (R3) but the demand for this "mule" pushes the price way up. I purchased this as a raw coin off eBay. It was improperly labeled as an 1840 but sold at full retail back then for a 1840-(O).
I am curious why you picked Seated Liberty Halves? I too have been collecting them for many years, almost exclusively, although my collection is no where near as nice (or complete) as yours. My reason for starting the collection was fairly straightforward in that I had completed Kennedy, Franklin, Walking Liberty and Barber, so it seemed logical to start Seated Liberty. At first, more than one dealer told me they did not stock them because there was so little interest from collectors. That worked to my favor because prices were more reasonable than now.
When I got back into coin collecting, I was becoming far-sighted and decided to collect larger silver coins. I decided to try to collect Barber halves raw off eBay to fill a Dansco album. TomB's articles on original Barber halves helped define for me what I was looking for. Unfortunately, many of the raw coins on eBay had been cleaned or wiped and I was disappointed by the lack of availability of original coins. One of the handful of nice Barber halves I found raw on eBay (VF25) I've always liked the seated Liberty design, so I purchased a few raw seated halves that looked original with nice rich toning and was delighted with their look and originality in-hand. I soon became hooked on SLHs. Because they tend to have more toning than Barbers, I could discern their originality better by examining their toning patterns. My "batting average" was much better with raw SLH than with raw Barner halves off eBay. As a consequence of my relying on toning, my collection tends to be dominated by richly toned coins. PCGS VF35 1853 PCGS XF45 CAC 1843 WB-35 (R3) I eventually abandoned my goal of having a complete Dansco set when I ran into difficulty finding tougher dates that would straight grade and I didn't want to crack out coins. So about five years ago, I started sending my coins in for grading with PCGS and started buying more slabbed, straight-graded examples of the tougher dates. At about the same time, I downloaded Bill Bugert's registries of die marriages and discovered a very rare die marriage (an R8) in my collection and then found an 1855/54 overdate in my 1855 slot. I found my niche looking for rare die marriages and cherry picking 1855/54 overdates. It was similar to what I had been doing professionally as a freshwater entomologist. 1874-S WB-4 (3 known) My interactions with other SLH collectors and seeing their collections (Catbert, Southcounty, LJenkins, and JBN) have influenced me to consider buying more high-grade coins and coins with nice color for common dates where I could afford them. I have never had THE key date coin for collections I worked on when I was younger (Lincolns, Liberty nickels, Mercury dimes, Walkers, and even Washington quarters), so I decided to take a huge financial risk and go after an 1878-S. It was a financially insane purchase. CACG AU58 1878 "Wimpy 8" Soaring auction prices lately have pushed me back to hunting for raw coins on eBay again to find some supposedly common but surprisingly difficult coins to finish off my collection.
SBA $1's... I have the 6 proof coins in other holders. '79 & '81 type 2s... '79 type 1... '80... '81 type 1... '99... Various sets from the mint... 2 versions (packaging-wise) of the '79 and '80 souvenir sets... '79, '80, '81, '99 uncirculated sets...
Canadian "Birds of Prey" Silver 5-Dollar Series... 2014 and 2015. Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk and Great Horned Owl. Oddly enough, you don't have to go to Canada to see these birds in the wild. You can find them all very readily in the States. Best pictures my setup can do at the moment.
I also have a complete set of Queen Victoria Newfoundland halves shown here. I'm 3-4 coins away from completing the entire set of Newfoundland halves. They steered me away from seated halves and had me searching eBay frequently for original-looking raw specimens for a few years. Newfoundland Halves | Coin Talk
@Gilbert . I will add a few other reasons to collect Seated Half Dollars. This is the only denomination that stays true to the "Sully" inspired version of Liberty. This means MS Liberty has much finer and distinctive features than the blockish version other Seated coins have. I often refer to Seated Halves as the Morgan dollar of Seated coins. It may just be a perception of my own but there always seems to be more Seated Halves on the market than of any of the other denominations. VARIETIES. The previously mention Bugert books have opened the way to track down and find hundreds of different die marriages and varieties. There is no "right" way to collect Seated Halves. You can go for a complete set. You can feature a specific mint. You can focus on just the later dates 79-91. You can pick a specific dater such as 40-O or 61-O and build a specialty set. Personally, I built a date set and a complete set of New Orleans coins; (only missed out on the elusive 52-O. You will find that Seated Halves are easier to find in attractive collector grades such as VF thru low AU. As you probably know, Barbers are hard to find above VG. Walkers are attractive and fun but prices for nice coins escalate rapidly. Franklins seem to abound in any grade or type you want. They are fun to collect but don't have the cachet of 19TH Century coins. Toning. For some reason, Seated Halves offer a wide number of toning versions that can be a set onto itself. I know you didn't bring up Bust Halves, but the competition you will face for Bust Halves is far larger than you will find for Seated Halves. Finally, there are enough different major and minor versions that it does not simply turn into an endless parade of the exact same design; just a different date. James
Here's my completed set. We control the volume, we control the vertical, we control the horizonal. You've just entered the outer limits. I'm just too undisciplined, and keep chasing every shiny silver object. Low ball coins need not apply.
About as far away as possible in the US. Native Floridian. But I'm old, when I was a kid, our TV sets went blank around midnight. The old test signal.
