Pretty cool.

Because it has been getting harder to find nice examples of the few coins I still need to finish my primary set of Liberty Seated Half Dimes, I have started collecting interesting varieties. This has been an enjoyable addition to my collecting habit.

Part of this new pursuit is simply gathering information on the varieties. As part of that effort I have been reading "A Guide Book of Liberty Seated Silver Coins" by Q. David Bowers. While on the 1840-O No Drapery entry, I was oddly struck with a sense of familiarity when I looked at the photos. I quickly got into my registry set photos to compare. Sure enough, it is my coin that is pictured in the book!

Having found that, of course I had to check them all. In the end, I found a total of six matches, five in my primary set (1839, 1840-O No Drapery, 1841, 1859 [detail photo], and 1862), and one in my second set (1844).

In four of the cases, the photos in the book are the same as ones I downloaded from auction websites when I got those coins. But the photos for the other two were different. For one of those, I had only my own not-so-great pictures. But I found both in the Stack's Bowers (not where I bought them) archive, and saved those photos.

So now I have a little more of the transaction history of two of my coins. In one case (the 1844), the CAC sticker was added after the Stack's Bowers sale and before the Heritage sale when I got it. In the other case (the 1862), the holder changed, having been an ANACS MS67 slab in the Stack's Bowers sale, and an NGC MS67 holder, with CAC sticker, when I got it from a dealer at a Baltimore show.

My wife thinks I'm nuts for tracking down all of this information. She thinks I'm nuts for collecting these things that all look the same... But I enjoy it, and I hope you all continue to enjoy our hobby in whatever way you do it.

Merry Christmas to all!

Alan

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