So, I am in the process of building a Red Book Variety set of capped bust half-dimes, 1829-1837, where Red Book lists 16 different varieties. But there are about 122 known die marriages. I am collecting with an eye to possibly expanding the set to a die marriage collection at some point so my purchasing for the Red Book set is geared more to rarer die marriages than the more common ones. So, I always attribute a potential purchase/bid to see if the coin's die marriage rarity makes it more attractive to me. Such was the case with an auction I won last night for an 1835 Small Date, Small 50C that is the LM-11 die marriage, Rarity 4. Seller's photos below, PCGS AU-55. When researching the LM-11 die marriage, I found what I thought was an anomaly in the Logan-McCloskey book which stated that the Reverse FF die for the 1835 LM-11 was the second use of this die. For the life of me, I could not find the first use among the 1835 die marriages. So, I went to the emission order table on page 64 and lo and behold, the first use of Reverse FF was not in 1835 or even 1834 coinage but rather in 1836! Such is the charm of early U.S. coinage. The first use of the Reverse FF die was to make coins dated 1836. Then the mint reused the FF die to mint 1835-dated coins. The third and final use of Reverse FF was again to mint 1836-dated coins, this time the LM-4 die marriage.
I don't know much about die marriages and varieties and such (or even care much about such minutiae, to be honest), but as a Type coin alone, if nothing else, that is one lovely little Baby Bustie!
I like the way you've laid out a blueprint for your collection's expansion. As late as 1966, the Mint's operations weren't necessarily constrained by the calendar.
I'm just in the early phases of learning about all this with capped half dollars. Definitely fun and challenging!
I suppose if I were to focus on a single series from this era, I too would stick to Redbook varieties and let the Jedi-level specialists go for every die marriage. But I've always been more of a general type collector than a date/mint/variety collector.
Like @kanga, I too am building a US Type Set which includes Colonials and gold. My financial resources kinda limit what I can collect in pre-1834 gold and some other early types like 1793 Chain and Wreath Cents and 1796 quarters. So, I branch out to other areas that intrigue me.
What it means is the specific die marriage in question (1835-dated, LM-11 using Obverse 5 & Reverse FF) was actually struck in 1836 AFTER the 1836-dated, LM-2 using Obverse 1 & Reverse FF. Remember that for 1835-dated coins, there were 11 die marriages and for 1836-dated coins, there were 7. So at least one half dime die marriage dated 1835 (the LM-11) was actually struck and issued in 1836. But there were 1836-dated coins that were struck in 1836 both before and after the 1835-dated LM-11. It's never simple is it?
https://web.archive.org/web/2018040...hinghalfdimes.com/attribute-my-half-dime.html This site has some good information but I find it to be not as useful nor as complete and detailed as the Logan/McCloskey book.
Nice coin! This is why with early US coins it can be difficult to guess how many were minted with a certain date, because the coins don’t necessarily bear the year in which they were minted. Your coin was probably included in the 1836 mintage figures.
