DWLange

Those sales include more than the currency shields, as it mentions "cards." There are quite a few specimen notes printed uniface on heavy paper.

Elizabeth II was queen longer than I've been alive, and that's quite a reign. At 96 she wasn't exactly cut down in her prime, but it's still a time of reflection. As a collector of British coins (no decimals, please) I have some really nice examples of her early coinage.

If you like antique coin boards, the greater part of my collection is on display at the Newman Numismatic Portal: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/imagecollections?searchLetter=C

The Overton book notes that many 1823 halves are mistakenly attributed as the Ugly 3, Broken 3 or Patched 3, and my own experience is that this is very true. Even the so-called "Normal 3" varieties reveal some oddly shaped 3's. The safest bet is to check the spacing and alignment of the obverse stars and the reverse lettering. A good place to start is NGC's VarietyPlus pages for this series: https://www.ngccoin.com/variety-plus/united-states/half-dollars/capped-bust-lettered-edge-half-dollars-1807-1836/?page=1

The Reeded Edge Bust Halves 1836-39 are covered in a fairly recent book by Graham that sold out its first printing, but I believe it is still available in a second printing. The Seated Liberty Halves are covered in tremendous detail in a series of books written by Bill Bugert. These may be viewed online at the website of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club. Barber Halves are covered in an older book by David Lawrence. The Walking Liberty Halves are covered by Bruce Fox in a book from 30 years ago and a more recent one by Q. David Bowers that is part of Whitman's Red Book specialty series.

There is a slight wipe mark that could cause this coin to be Details graded, but I wouldn't call it cleaned overall.

I could see a bar from the 1850s being worth a lot, but the ones I sought were from the 1950s and still priced very high.

This is a longstanding problem, as evidenced by this coin board from 1937.

NGC will not attribute something that minor. It's nearly impossible to discern.

Mint bars have been bringing very high prices for several years now. I wanted one from the San Francisco Mint (my home town) and never even got close.

The coins is 1879-O, so it's likely a mechanical error.

I'm seeing a coin that appears neither cleaned nor counterfeit. It appears to match VAM-9, though not in the die state with polishing lines: http://ec2-13-58-222-16.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/wiki/1878-CC_VAM-9

FS numbers in the 100 series are all doubled-die obverse varieties. You can find them listed here: https://www.ngccoin.com/variety-plus/united-states/

The idea was to keep the design from becoming cluttered with statutory text.

Looking at the current generation of NGC submission form I see that USPS remains at option, but does not include insurance now. You may use USPS Express Mail, but you must have your own Express Mail account with USPS. I do not know the reason for this change.

I've furnished many new varieties to the CPG from NGC's VarietyPlus listings, but I can't do anything to speed its publication. We've all been waiting for years.

The coins listed in the announcement are for Volume I only.

Thank you, but it is not Numismatist of the Year. I received that award from the ANA back in 2017. CW recently issued its second edition of the 100 Most Influential Persons in Numismatics, and I have been included in both editions. Several NGCers are now part of that roster.

The description is for Volume I, not the Volume II book everyone has been awaiting. It's still good reading, but V II has been announced more times than a dog has fleas.

You can learn quite a lot from this NGC tutorial. Page 17 features examples of strike doubling and other misleading forms of doubling: https://www.ngccoin.com/pdf/US_Coin_Die_Varieties.pdf

There's no such variety. It's most likely just strike doubling, which is very common on the obverse of Mercury Dimes.

The only way to get the equivalent Baker numbers is to buy the Musante book, which comes with a conversion chart.

That's certainly helps. I expect to be well enough to return to shows with Fall's Baltimore Expo.

A few people still do...

Your quarter appears to have been made normally and then altered outside of the mint. The edge has been tapped down around its edge. Sometimes this is done as part of the process of converting it into a ring, but I can't imagine anyone wanting a ring made from a clad quarter. The reason for this alteration will likely never be known, but it has no added value.