A raw coin I bought years ago on eBay. It had some polishing in the fields and some rim issues, but still a lot of dirt in the crevices. Recently I decided to try and attribute it from the Wiley-Bugert guide (on line at the LSCC resources); it appears to be WB-19; there is the bottom of an 8 (doubled) in the rock over the 2nd 8 in the date. I thought that was kind of cool.
That's a nice looking coin. It has a few issues but I don't think they are serious, at least to my eye for a circulated coin. I don't know how the 58-Os stack up for striking quality, but this one's got a good strike for a New Orleans issue.
Thanks for the comments; it's a common issue, over 7m mintage, W-B say it's R3. 41 die pairings! When I first got it , it was really dirty with some old album paper stuck to it. Current look is after an acetone soak.
Very nice coin! Thanks for the attribution resource as well. I also have an 1858-O half, and after looking at that online book, I'm pretty sure that it's a WB-107 or "Quadrupled Second 8." The picture taken from a USB scope looks like it shows the extra 8 in the rock at top, the swoop of the 8 inside the upper loop of the second 8 and an extra piece of an 8 to the right. Here is the image from the resource to compare it to: And here is the entire coin: Does that attribution make sense? Again, thanks for pointing out this resource!
This is the one I have which is not as nice as yours but then again everyone's coins are better than mine lol.
Why do the 8's look like they're slanted slightly to the right on all of these coins? And the second 8 looks slightly larger than the first one?
Back in those days, the date was punched into the hub or working dies with either individual punches or some type of gang punch. The gang punch might be only the first two digits (18) or three digits (185) or all four digits (1858). So, the variability of the date's appearance could have a very wide range depending upon which of the many options available were chosen. Does that answer your question? If not, ask it again with more specificity.
cool variety, ewomack. looks like you got it right. I remember seeing that variety in the W-B listings thinking, "I'll never see one of those." And there it is.
