I been going down a rabbit hole here because I want to bid on some "O" mint halves going to auction tomorrow..... Now I am not, nor will I ever be one of those guys that studies die varieties, but my curiosity is up on the 1861-O halves. History tells us that Louisiana seceded in January of 1861. Yet there are plenty of 1861-O halves minted. As I fall deeper into this rabbit hole, I see we have: 1861-O, USA Issued 1861-O Louisiana Issued 1861-O CSA Issued And of course the 1861-O, CSA Obverse All the 1861-O halves with exception of the CSA obverse appear to me to be typical 1861-O halves. Is it just the study of the die variety minutia that tells us a USA half versus a Louisiana or CSA minted half?
Randy, as you know I am not a die variety guy. It all sounds interesting but does it really matter? Who’s going to pay extra for what I consider something to be so minor? I’ll probably get beat up over this but to me it’s so minor, interesting but minor. What I’m trying to say is, if you had a die variety for each of the four coins hype mentioned from 1861-O, is there really a premium placed on that?
Oh yeah... I totally get that. I am like you and just want the nicest type coins I can get my grubby hands on. Just wondering how we can know today 165 years later what halves were minted by the USA versus the CSA.
