Hello everyone A little over a year ago I bought this 1809 Capped Bust half dollar. I was looking for a bust half that was already holed (I hate the idea of holing them, so why not buy one where the damage had already been done?). The 1809 is still one of my favorite coins in my collection, however it is almost half a millimeter wider than my other CBH's. I had shared this in another coin forum, and it was concluded that sometime most likely during the holing process, the coin was squished with a vice somehow. This could also explain why there is a larger amount of wear on Liberties mouth area. However, it seems like a lot of the edge lettering was ground off. While most of the letters are legible a lot of them are worn away pretty heavily. I learned pretty early that the 1809 bust half has an III and XXX variety, III being the more common one. Unfortunately the III or XXX area seems to have worn off completely. I'm pretty sure the answer is "no", but is there any other way to tell this variety apart? Maybe by die variations? or the rest of the letters?
Here are the differing edges in the order of production for 1809. The mint started the year using the plain edge (112, 113, 114, 115, and 111); started using the IIII edge (111'a', 109, 107, most 108); switched to the XXX edge (108a, 101, 110, 102, a few 102'a') then went back to the plain edge (102'a', 104, 105, 103 , 106). 108's are known with both the |||| edge and the XXX edge; 102 'a's are known with both the XXX and the plain edges. Your coin is O-111--a plain edge.
Only on the Overton 101, 102, and 110 die marriages (all 3 used the same reverse die). It's not recut on the 108a. You will also find that most 102"a" even though they still display the recut U are plain edge rather than XXX.
