Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="kanga, post: 814286, member: 9270"]BACKGROUND: The 1941 proof WL half comes in two varieties, NO "AW" and WITH "AW"."AW" is the designer's initials (Adolph A. Weinman) and they appear on the reverse.It appears that the proof dies were produced from the business strike dies, just highly polished.Sometimes so highly polished that the initials (AW) were often removed resulting in the NO "AW" variety.From what little could find about this, the general feeling is that there are fewer coins with the initials than without. MY DISAPPOINTMENT: I've got one in an NGC holder labeled:1941 NO "AW" 50C/PF 65.That's good.I bought another in an NGC holder labeled:1941 50C/PF 66(Just as an aside, I bought it from Island Coins in Dec 09. That's the dealer we just found out passed on.)I looked at it carefully and the initials are there albeit weak.So I sent back to NGC to get a definitive opinion.Of course I was hoping it would get the WITH "AW" attribution.I got the coin back in the same holder.No attribution.I called and the response was if there's no attribution on the label then it is understood to be the WITH "AW" variety.So I have the coin I wanted.Just disappointed (and $60 poorer) that the label doesn't say so.[/QUOTE]