This 1830 half dime is not unique for either it's condition or rarity. But this LM 4.1 die marriage is characterized by a rather unique clash. If you look in Liberty's hair, you will see the gules and azures of the eagle's shield. While I haven't performed an exhaustive search, every instance of this obverse that I have found exhibits this clash. I've been thinking about this for some time and while I'm familiar with how clashed working dies occur, I am a little confused on how the gules and azures of an incuse reverse working die wound up impressed into the incuse hair of Liberty's image on the obverse die. Since both working dies' devices are incuse, the "smash" would have to be pretty extreme for the depressed shield to be impressed into the bottom of the obverse die at Liberty's hair. Admittedly, the shield and the hair are not the deepest part of the Liberty/Shield impression on the working die, but you would think that, during coin striking, the metal flow that fills the deepest part of Liberty (the hair curls) would also have obliterated the die impressions at a shallower part of the strike, which is where this clash shows up. It got me wondering if the clash did not occur with the working dies but rather with the hubs used to make the working dies. These hubs are not incuse, rather all the devices stand proud of the fields and if the obverse and reverse hubs were pressed against each other in the press, then this clash would be explained since the gules/azures and hair would be the first to strike each other. But I cannot envision any scenario where both the obverse and reverse hubs were in the press at the same thus allowing them to clash. Typically one hub would be placed in the press and a blank working die would be mounted with it in order to impress the hub into the working die. Interestingly, there is no apparent clash on the reverse of the coin. Does, this imply that when making the obverse working die, the mint workers mistakenly mounted the reverse hub in the press, made an reverse impression, realized their mistake and then mounted the correct obverse hub and overstruck the mis-struck working die? Am I just overthinking this? I am interested in your thoughts on the matter.
I think what you see on the obverse is the clash lines from reverse shield, the area that produces the base of the horizontal shield lines on the as struck coin. If you look closely in the bottom of the shield lines you may see the impression of the hair. If not, it may be a different reverse die or the reverse die may be harder than the obverse to the extent the clash event did not damage it.
Attached is the enlargement of the reverse shield on this coin. I see not evidence of a clash here. It is not a different reverse die. This is the correct reverse die for this die marriage. Your thought regarding a differential hardness between obverse and reverse working dies had occurred to me since die steel and hardening technology had not completely resolved themselves as issues at the mint by 1830. The idea being that the reverse working die was considerably harder than the obverse working die and when they clashed, the reverse impressed itself into the obverse but not vice versa. I haven't thought that one through yet. Thanks for your comments.
Die hardening issues existed many years beyond 1830. My avatar is a classic example, 1883 -O VAM 1C2. Heavy reverse die clash marks from 2 clash events and not a smidge on the obverse.
The reason you don't see clachmarks in the shield on the reverse is because this was the second use of this obv die. It was originally used on LM-3 and in that marraige comes without clash marks in the early strikes and thewith clash marks both obv and reverse in later strikes. Then the obv was paired with the rev of LM-4 showing the obv clash on all strikes but no clashmarks on the rev. The clashmarks are from the die. The white stripes and the grooves between the "blue" stripes on the die are the shallowest part of the design and are just about at the level of the field on the dies.
Logan-McCloskey does say Obverse 1 in LM-3 comes with clash marks in the later die states but they do not say the clash is the gules and azures, which they do say is the case for Obverse 1 in LM-4.1 and LM-4.2. So, I'm not convinced, without further evidence, that the obverse clash in LM-3 is the gules and azures clash. I will have to look for some late state LM-3 examples to try to see what the clash may be, if not the gules and azures. I think I'm on-board with this explanation. Occam's Razor and all that. While the shield is not the shallowest part of the reverse working die, it is obviously more shallow than the head, wing edges, talons, etc. Also, the portion of Liberty's hair where the gules and azures clash shows up is also pretty shallow on the working die. Thanks for the insightful comment.
It isn't the greatest image but the XF-45 LM-3 coin shown on coinfacts does show the azure line clashmarks. The two higher grade coins do not.
