Esoteric question about 1840 (O) half dollar varieties

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by fiddlehead, May 13, 2017.

  1. fiddlehead

    fiddlehead Well-Known Member

    Hi folks. This variety of the 1840 half dollar is rare enough in its entirety but there are also two sub-varieties. WB-101 is the main variety and WB-12 seems to be a sub-variety of that. There are in the Gobrecht Journal schematics of how each of the varieties were created by mating various obverse and reverse dies. According to those journals the standard WB101 has the first of two obverses and all seem to have been made with the same 1839 bust reverse. The question I have is this: Dealers seem to contend that the WB12 obverse coin is the rarer of the two. However, I can't find any evidence to back this up. In fact, I have seen very few standard 101's for sale recently and several wb12's. So how can a collector know if one variety is in fact more rare than another when there is no official record of existing examples? For example, right now, I know of three (O)'s for sale and all are Wb-12's. I saw a few others recently and 2 out of three were 12's. Here's an example of each variety - both circulated and both with CAC. The best way to tell the difference seems to be the position of the date (the wb-101 on top WB-12 on bottom) (you can tell that the reverses are the same based on the die crack from the A in America):

    1840 (O) 50c xf40 wb-101 comp example.jpg 1840 (O) 50c wb12 vf30 NGC comp example.jpg

    So, really - is this just a widely accepted hype that tends to increase the asking price on a WB-12, or are these sorts of issues based on some sort of facts? Heritage seldom identifies the wb-12 variety by name, but a quick scan of the 30 examples there shows that the wb-12 may be a minority but is well represented. So, what do you think? Is anyone here able to shed light on the issue?
     
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  3. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Too esoteric for me, I'm afraid, but those are both very handsome coins. I particularly like the second.

    But sorry. Can't help you with variety attribution.
     
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  4. SuperDave

    SuperDave Free the Cartwheels!

    I lack issue-specific knowledge, but be aware that rarity is a moving target, always evolving. In many cases, the appearance of previously-unknown examples on the market - understanding they will always exist - can skew actual populations in a direction opposite the previous. The 1903-O Morgan is a fine example - at one time, the absolute stopper to a Morgan collection, the rarest of them all, fewer than a dozen known in Mint State. Then in October 1962 the Treasury released a few full $1000 bags of them....boom.

    If your empiric data holds, it's likely a case (a common one) where perception has not developed at the same speed as population.
     
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  5. fiddlehead

    fiddlehead Well-Known Member

    Oh, FWIW - I made a small error in the original post. Neither of these coins has CAC certification. The one on top is an XF40 and bottom a VF30. I was looking at the wrong line. But yeah, they are both quite nice in their own way. (I own the first coin). From what I can tell, the wb-12's which resulted from the second die pairing tend to have a slightly better strike, especially on Liberty's head! We can also see that the die crack on the reverse of the WB-12 has gotten worse :). Hah, for some reason, I love this stuff.

    Also - NGC calls this an 1840 (O) "medium letters" and PCGS call it "reverse of 38".
     
  6. Oldhoopster

    Oldhoopster Member of the ANA since 1982

    You win the esoteric question award. Next time I start feeling strange when I'm measuring distances between devices to the nearest 0.5mm on German Notgeld coins while trying to translate the German in order to get the proper attribution, I'll know that I'm not alone. :wacky:. BTW: Great looking coins
     
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