1788 half cent

I was typing this when others replied. Will post anyway, even though it may be out of synch. By the way, I agree it could be three digits = $0.05.


Orange Gold,

We may be grappling with a little misunderstanding here….
Massachusetts cents and half cents were STRUCK using dies, not cast.
In the process of making dies, the letters were added to each die using a set of punches. They were not hand-engraved into the dies. That’s why the letters themselves are consistent from variety to variety from the same die maker. Two men, Joseph Callender and Jacob Perkins, made the dies for the official issues. We can even tell which man made which die, in part because Callender’s S’s are open, while Perkins’ S’s are closed, looking like 8’s.
Each unique combination of an obverse (heads) die and a reverse (tails) die represents a variety. There are roughly 50 combinations (i.e., varieties) of cents and half cents combined. Four or five cent varieties are considered to be contemporary counterfeits, possibly made at Machins’ Mills, a private mint in New York. They too are struck and their dies were lettered using punches.
None of those 50 or so varieties looks remotely like the piece we are discussing. It’s letters WERE hand-engraved and are quite crude. Even on genuine examples, there is some variation because dies become worn and are rengraved, etc. And letters may be positioned/spaced differently. But the letters here are way too different.
There are plenty of other differences between this piece and genuine examples. But, hopefully this helps with the “letter” question. In the pic, the #3 piece is a copy of a 1776 Mass penny. Not the same coin exactly, but made by the same process and probably the same people. See the difference bewteen it and the real thing?

 

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Thanks for the great post and pictures ARguy, that shoul clear up any doubt! This is as poor of a copy as I have seen, there is nothing correct about it.

 

Thanks.

We've beaten this dead horse pretty well now, but I believe that this thread is worth the extra discussion because this particular copy shows up SO often on eBay, in flea markets, etc., often presented as the real thing.

 

Yeah unfortunately the original piece is definitely a cast counterfeit. These copies have been around for a long time and we still see them pop up from time to time.