grade THIS ! 1803 50c

Sorry, made my last post from work when I was horrified to see the thread was on hold for me. I have 133 examples of Mr. Overtons favorite that range from 1801-1836 and its been my experience that the entire series was poorly minted and a lot of people make mistakes in grading them because of the difference between wear and inadeqate transfer of the design from the dies to the planchets. The dies were used until they crumbled. Resulting of course into all of the varieties. So one carefully has to look at all the other devices and see what the relief on the stars and the date and the shield and the arrows and the overall coin before immediately glossing everything over to wear. Still think its AU 50. But thats me.

Steve

 

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Gorgeous, original-looking XF-45. Just a tad too much wear on the obverse to warrant the AU grade.

 

Thanks for sharing.

Steve

 

Looks like a 45 to me. Great piece!

 

Well that's why I was there too. Like the rev. shield and eagles wings sometimes look very warn but it's the strike that left them that way from the start.

 

It looks beautiful, and about XF 45, to me.

 

Yes Duke and when you say strike these coins werent struck they just stuck the planchet between two dies and screwed it down to force the transfer of the design to the coin. I saw an example of the press myself and the turning handel for the screw press was 15 foot long and took two mint employees to screw it down. The results were less then spectacular pressure wise to force the silver into the dies.

Thanks for you imput

Steve

 

I think you might have to change the name of your website from 900 fine, to 901 extra fine.

I like the coin, almost as much as your 1907 proof gold.

 

Interesting - can anybody post links to read more about different minting processes used by the US mint over the years? Thanks, Dima

 

NGC calls this one AU50.

My spin - I tend to agree with the weak strike, E-MDS school of thought. There is a dramatic difference between wear-induced luster break on cheek on full luster in the hair behind the ear (which has almost no wear). Though they don't show well in the photo, exceptional luster and color earned it the AU50.

I don't have my Overton book handy, but this almost has the look of "buckled dies", slightly concave, which gives less striking pressure in he centers (hair, eagle's head).

Sincere thanks for the comments ! Interesting and enlightening for me.

 

I went searching the Bible and in Al Overtons introduction on page xxviii, the last sentence of the first paragraph says, Planchets prepared, coins struck and the completed coins were returned to the depositor.

So I stand corrected. They were struck.

Steve

 

Ditto!! 45

 

No I called it an AU 50 from the get go. Unless I missed something the TPG said it was AU 50. Those dummies at NGC. LOL

Steve

 

Hmmm, I'd have thought either 40 or 45 myself, but still a bust half is a bust half and they are all over the place when it comes to grading.