Upgrades, upgrades.....how many can I afford?

Some of you mat have seen and/or participated in the recent Stack's auction. They sold one of the most extensive collections of high-grade Walking Liberty half dollars ever - hundreds of lots, multiple SETS of MS-66 and MS-67 graded short sets (1941 - 47), dozens of single MS-67 coins.

I bid on several lots, expecting to be outbid on most or all of them (as typically happens on ebay or Heritage). Sure enough, the "You've been outbid!" e-mails started arriving almost immediately and kept coming right up to the date of the auction. I had originally bid on about a dozen lots, and as some of them were bid out of reach I placed bids on other Walkers in the same date and grade, fully expecting most of those to also be bid out of reach.

Apparently the quantity of high-quality coins overloaded the supply of bidders: I was very surprised to get an e-mail last week informing me that I had won FOUR of these coins! I was hoping for one or two. The box arrived in the mail today and I added the following to my sets:

- 1941-D NGC MS-67 Essentially all white, sharp strike (except for the usual lack of thumb detail), and almost no marks on the reverse side, even with a 10x glass.

- 1943-D NGC MS-67 A little toning, very sharp strike, and one of the most extensive die cracks I have seen on a Walker. It starts near the bottom center (between the A & R in DOLLAR), follows close to the tips of all of the wing feathers, around the top of the wing and ends at the very top of left wing.

- 1944-D NGC MS-67 Some toning on the obverse periphery, the usual soft hand detail, very clean reverse surfaces.

- 1944 NGC MS-66* Not a great strike, obviously from a worn die, but spectacular toning. The photos don't begin to show it.

These four upgrades move my short sets back into Top 10 range - temporarily, at least. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Of course, there's a down side to this success: as lehigh reported on his 1944-P Jefferson, I spent more than I had counted on. I never expected to win all four of these!

Here's the reverse of the 1944 half.