This little coin has been in my collection for awhile. It is raw. When I first purchased it I attributed it as a F-117, Obverse 17, Reverse Q using Gerry Fortin's Attribution Guide on the LSCC website. Now, I am looking at it again and not only having doubts on my original attribution but having trouble coming to any attribution. Comments? I would also appreciate your thoughts on the grade. The photos are mine and are a pretty good representation of the coin in hand. Thanks.
Well, before anyone else calls me a fool for not being able to tell a half dime from a dime: I just typoed the "half-dime" in the title and I really have been trying to attribute it as a dime.
What the heck is that big rectangle above "ONE" on the reverse? And the scratches in the obverse fields before and after Lady Liberty and after "ONE"/"DIME" on the reverse are bothersome. I can't attribute them to the Mint but .... Something just doesn't look right to me.
@kanga, the big rectangle on the reverse actually is not one. At the lower left of the "rectangle", just above the left serif of "N" are two short perpendicular incused lines that look like they might be the lower left corner of a box. The other "lines" you see that look like they might be the rest of the box are actually a number of random, unrelated, blemishes. This conclusion comes after a close examination at 5X, 10X, 30X and 60X. Just another example of how coin photography can both reveal and distract. Similarly, my photographs have magnified some extremely small marks to the left and right of Liberty. They are not visible to the naked eye and are not nearly as parallel as my photo would lead you to believe. Are they hairlines from an improper cleaning? I don't happen to think so but I have the advantage of the coin in hand. The hairlines to the right of ONE DIME are just that but look more like the result of a scrape in handling than of a cleaning. Now, I have no doubt this coin was cleaned at some point in its history but I don't think it would get an 'improperly cleaned" designation. No one has a thought on attribution? That was really my primary purpose in this post.
Now that I'm no longer laughing at a half dime/dime I think your dime is a strong AU. It's a beautiful coin! I'm not good at attributing this coin so I won't.
I've figured this out, I think. It is the F-101 Hubbed Variety in a Very Early Die State. In 1853, the mint was still hubbing only the central obverse of the figure of liberty until at some point they started hubbing the date and arrows along with the figure of Liberty. This coin is one of those "hubbed" varieties. It shares all the attributes of the F-101 variety except that some of the obverse die cracks are not in existence yet or are early in their development. The reverse is listed as "perfect" and I can find no die cracks or other diagnostics on my coin. So, I'm calling this a VEDS F-101.
Variety attributions are not my thing during this era. As for the grade, you can conpare it to this one which is an NGC MS-64.
