Gene Braig's fantasy pieces of the 1804 C-6 half cents

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by Jack D. Young, Apr 12, 2020.

  1. Jack D. Young

    Jack D. Young Well-Known Member

    In going through and organizing some piles on my train wreck desk I pulled this example out and noticed it to be different than the current Chinese counterfeit "family" based on the 1804 C-6 half cent.

    This example not only has the die breaks on the reverse (the Chinese ones are "earlier") but appears to be later than the documented states of genuine examples.

    LDS-1804-combo.jpg
    my-lds-obv.jpg

    In researching for more information I found an older CT post from 2009 (https://www.cointalk.com/threads/exhibit-half-cents-1804-january-1st-2009-fish.45705/) which stated:

    " Finally, something a little different. This isn't a coin at all. It is a construct made by or at the request of Gene Braig to show how he believed the reverse die may have progressed. It also corresponds to Breen's state XVI, which he claimed to have discovered an example of in around 1954, as well as Katman state 10 which that cataloger had not seen. According to Breen, Roger Cohen may have seen or known of an example. No example of this coin or anything close to it is currently known to collectors. They never existed or are now lost. This is almost certainly an electrotype, as the piece itself is exceedingly heavy".

    Unfortunately the images aren't available in that post and I wondered if anyone here might have access to them and could share here?

    A friend offered a reverse image of another example as follows:

    92684764_10213965117876695_8823837402838597632_n.jpg

    Thanks for any help, Jack.
     
    capthank and TypeCoin971793 like this.
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  3. halfcent1793

    halfcent1793 Well-Known Member

    This variety was and probably still is the most popular half cent to collect by die state, because of the spectacular and progressive reverse cracks and cuds.
    A couple of decades ago, several collectors, myself included, were trying to get complete die state sets of this variety. This, of course, made the chase challenging and expensive. Eventually, several of us sold our sets and the prices for nearly all of the more difficult die states collapsed.
    I ended up with 17 different "Manley die states," two of which, those I called M10.4 and M13, were not listed in Manley.
    Manley listed about 20 die states that he thought were distinctive enough; Cohen is credited with saying at one point that if you wanted a complete die state set of this variety, you'd have to have every coin.

    I haven't owned mine for over a decade, and I may be wrong, but as I recall, the Braig constructs were cast.
    You can see that whatever the created the built up "cud" over OF had to be filed down.
    These weren't particularly deceptive, and everyone knew them for what they were at the time.
     

    Attached Files:

  4. Jack D. Young

    Jack D. Young Well-Known Member

    Awesome halfcent1793- I have copied that image for future reference!
     
    halfcent1793 likes this.
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