I don't think Mick was singing about this.

A friend responded by PM to my previous post, and mentioned that he had recently purchased a different 1838 half dime, with its own interesting character, from Gerry Fortin. That served as a nudge for me to check Gerry's site again.

Now the latest issue of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club's "Gobrecht Journal" has an article by half dime specialist Steve Crain on 1847 shattered reverse half dimes. When I read that, I thought I would really like to find decent examples. But that might be difficult, since Steve wrote that he has been pursuing them as well.

So what did I find on Gerry's site? There was a nice PCGS MS 63 example of the first shattered reverse discussed in the article! The price seemed fair, so I emailed Gerry to express my interest. He quickly responded, indicating it was indeed still available. And now, it is mine.

So I am doing what I recently wrote that I would be doing. I am pursuing and obtaining interesting varieties as I wait for nice examples of the scarce coins still missing from my main set to become available.

A photo of the reverse, taken with my iPhone, is below. Note the cracks:

from the rim at D1 through HAL to the rim at M1;

from H down through D(IME), wreath, and left stem to rim;

from rim through C into wreath;

from previous crack, just before leaf tip, up across berry and into leaf right of (DIM)E;

from rim through center of M1 through wreath.

I hope you all have as much fun building your collections as I do with mine!

Alan

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