Capped Bust Lettered Edge Half Dollar

Discussion in 'Error Coins' started by coingal, Jul 28, 2008.

  1. coingal

    coingal New Member

    Hello,

    My son was noticing a coin that has been in my family for years, and he noted the the lettered edge on this Capped Bust Half Dollar (1834) says "Fifty Cents Oalf A Dollar" instead of "Fifty Cents Half A Dollar"

    Can anyone tell me if this is in fact and error coin? If it is, do you know where I can seek more information about it?


    Thanks!
     
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  3. rzage

    rzage What Goes Around Comes Around .

    Welcome to CT , maybe through wear it just looks like that , a picture would really help , exspecialy a closeup of the lettering .
    rzage
     
  4. coingal

    coingal New Member

    Thank you for the welcome!

    Here is an image of the coin:

    [​IMG]

    It is a little hard to see, but you can make out the "OA" I searched the internet for other info and all I could find was one other mention of this error. Here is what I found on www.coinsite.com


    "David Manzi writes: I have an 1830 XF Bust Half with, what may or may not be an interesting error. On the lettered edge, the word "OR" is stamped over the first two letters of the word "Half" so it now appears to read, "fifty cents oalf a dollar". Have you ever seen this error? Also is it listed in the Overton book and do you have any idea what its worth?

    There are more than one hundred lettered edge varieties on Capped Bust half dollars. Overton's book is now hopelessly out of date and until more information is uncovered, the true rarity of these edge varieties won't be known. "

    If anyone has info on this coin, I would be very interested to find out about it. Like I said before, it has been in my family for years.

    Thanks!!
     
  5. Bonedigger

    Bonedigger New Member

    To be quite honest, it's not really considered an marketable error, but -- if you were to sell it on the internet a little extra description about the bunched/missing letters on the edge might bring in a few extra bucks...

    These coins edge lettering was all over the place; they were all struck by screw/horse/hand up until 1836.

    Here is a chart from Al Overton's Lettered Edge Bust Half Dollar Reference which lists the varieties of edge lettering.
    [​IMG]
     
  6. coingal

    coingal New Member

    Thanks for the info Bonedigger!

    No plans to sell, just curious about the coin. My son just took up coin collecting, and he is enjoying digging through our family's old coins!

    Thanks, and have a good evening.
     
  7. Conder101

    Conder101 Numismatist

    The lettered edge is placed on the coin by a machine called a Castaining machine. It is made up of two edge dies, one fixed and one movable. The movable die can be slid passed the fixed die by means of a crank. The distance between the dies is just slightly less than the diameter of the planchet. Each die has half of the inscription, one saying FIFTY CENTS OF and the other says HALF A DOLLAR. If the moving die is not cranked fully back to the starting point, the inscriptions can overlap by varying amounts or other edge errors can occur.

    A couple of old engravings of the Castaining machine

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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