RWB

Used for squeezing money out of insufficiently_thoughtful_persons.

The truncation of a portrait bust is a common area of excess metal stress during coinage. Lots of examples. Too insignificant to be of much interest. Sorry.

It's unique to every die, so there are hundreds of thousands of them. Occasionally useful for die matching, but not much other than amusement.

Not entirely. The primary reason was because SF had different presses and needed dies cut to different lengths than Philadelphia. Some of this involved Carson until they acquired a new Ajax press which was identical to one at Philadelphia. New Orleans also wanted dies cut to a different length, but Philadelphia told them to cut hardened dies. (NO was not fully trusted when it cam back on-line after 1877. A reason commonly given to Congress was security -- hardening and tempering coinage dies was very exacting work and not undertaken by just anyone. Thus, stolen soft dies were less of a threat to the coinage. Barber pushed for having all dies the same length in the 1890s and this was eventually followed in about 1897 (don't have an exact date, but by the only SF was left hardening their own.) By policy and practice all coinage experiments were made at Philadelphia until Denver got permission to open their own die shop.

RE: "Does the apparent destruction of records in the 1979-80 range make the coins “cease to exist”, as “Burdettian” thought processes require? Or do the coins truly “stand on their own” or “speak for themselves” as 1964 special coins are not allowed to? Sorry, but I just have to tweak noses over the fixation on documents." Numismatics without documentary research is like practicing law without written laws. Of course that fits the ignorance of an alleged lawyer some vigilante, seat-of-the-pants justice place. The coins are as they appear, but they cannot "stand on their own" because what we "think we see" is only part of the story, and easily subject to honest (or biased) misinterpretation. Research is investigation - as necessary in numismatics as in any other field of interest - it is part of the search for truth and reality. Personally, I have hope that more information about the 1927 experiments remains in Mint archives. There are more than 100 volumes of correspondence covering the period of interest that have never been opened. There might also be an internal report on the subject, tucked away in an as-yet unexamined file box. We don't know, but we have the means to find out, rather than brush the subject off as, "Well, they speak for themselves," bologna. (Coins do not "speak for themselves." They speak for our biases and presumptions built on individual and collective ignorance. Here's an example from an active thread: "This one then edge looks like a die bleed or something on the edge amd the 4 looks double the word TRUST looks like flat smooshed letters." To the writer of that sentence, the coin is "speaking for itself." Add a bit more numismatic terminology and you have "1964 SMS coins." )

National Bureau of Standards (NIST) is a secure and trusted government location and the only non-commercial place with scientific expertise sufficient to do the plating and understand the results. We can guess that the chromium microfractures mentioned in latter documents were noticed in 1927, but without the internal correspondence (and possibly a report) we can't know. From the latter 1930s and into 1943 (cent dies) chromium plating began production use on foreign dies, some proof dies (along with different alloy steel), and in 1943 of a substantial proportion of cent dies. (Chromium plated dies were less likely to clog with zinc dust.)

There would have been a few for review by mint officers and those connected with the plating equipment. It was 7 or 8 years later that the surface crazing was understood, but most of the plating was done at the Bureau of Standards (now NIST).

Not too long after zinc coated steel cents were introduced, the Mint began looking for ways to darken them before issue. The bright zinc coating caused confusion with dimes, although from this far in the future it seems difficult to believe. (Yes, it is documented. Even the President complained.)

People who have a lot of money, are not necessarily wealthy, at least in the full sense of the word. The people with a lot of money own things for personal validation, and to show others they are somehow "better" or superior based on one small category of humanity. Money is used to separate and divide, rather than improve unify; it becomes a surrogate for emotional greed and moral bankruptcy. A billionaire's coin "collection" might be worth a lot of money, but its value is not measurable by that means. (Look at the homes of Supreme Court justices - modest places in comfortable but not ostentatious communities. Those are rich men and women whose wealth is not measured by the number of helicopters that can land on their yacht's deck.) The billionaire owner of the Washington Football team (once the Redskins now the Commanders) is one of the most impoverished people in the region. He is poor in every measure of human culture and society except money. When he dies, even that tiny distinction will vanish. I really don't place any value at all on what a billionaire might collect: it is all for the wrong reasons.

I noticed the tangled thread on the PCGS board concerning these coins. 1) the description of 1927 nickels provided in the link is hopelessly garbled and filled with guesses and false assumptions. 2) there are no 1921 proof double eagles, and no "semi-proof" or other foolishness. They lack any authentic proof characteristics - George Morgan knew how to make authentic DE proofs on a medal press, either sandblasted or satin.

A 1795 bust, small eagle silver dollar is worth from $8,000 to $10,000 in extremely fine condition. Do you really think you could buy one for $260 ? You've been made a fool of by your own greed and ignorance. But --- you can change! Buy a copy of the Guide Book of US Coins and become familiar with the real values of authentic coins. Look beyond the promotional words and concentrate on facts and real-world truth. Learn about coin grading and what separates collectible errors and varieties from junk -- especially mechanical doubling from real doubled dies. Ask questions here and begin to understand real coin collectors from dishonest rubes and charlatans.

https://livestly.com/these-30-pennies-are-worth-over-20-million/?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_campaign=LIVD_Y1_DSK_PennyWorthAlot&utm_medium=AOL_MAIL|c&ss=1

It's a common cent. No value to a coin collector. Cents get a lot of abuse including letter stamps, state outline stamps, pipes and all sorts of garbage. None of them have any value -- none at all.

Because to a coin collector, of which you are not, they have been unnaturally altered and ruined. Your silver dollar is not "rare" in any condition, but with polishing it has been totally wrecked. Collectors want coins that are as close as possible to their original condition.

This is the prime fallacy of commercial "grading" - it is inherently unstable and therefore unreliable. A court could not determine if someone sold "overgraded" coins, or not.

Jim - Do you mean the ones made with chromium plated dies? If so, those were experimental pieces that left the Philadelphia Mint. I don't know what PCGS says about the coins and the only important thing is authentication - the "grade" is meaningless. See pages 35-36 in my book United States Proof Coins 1936 – 1942 for an explanation. I’ve not come across anything more on the subject; however, there are a lot of correspondence volumes remaining to be digitized and reviewed.

Many of the very best old collections are not in slabs. The grades are meaningless and the coins are original. It's only "nervous Nellies" who must have slabbed coins.

The glued together article and the two "source" articles are mostly nonsense. Here's a 1-sovereign equivalent disc that I own. Obverse is mostly PL around the inscription and reverse is PL in untextured areas. The "grade" is MS-64, but it's one of the best I've found. I'd love to find an equivalent condition 4-sovereign piece. Yes, I "overpaid" for the disc because I wanted quality and not merely some paper label. The owner of the 1933 DE will fully understand.

Descriptions for #1041 and 1042 are filled with obsolete information. Look in Renaissance of American Coinage 1905-1908 and Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles as Illustrated by the Phillip H. Morse and Steven Duckor Collections for correct descriptions.

The purchase price is not stated. Let's hope it was a lot less than the $4,000+ shown in a previous post. Good decisions come from knowledge, not prayers.

Wrong on the Merkers Mine. The Germans kept excellent records and almost everything in the mint got back to the rightful owners, or their families. Exceptions were boxes of personal items such as rings and jewelry, many of whose owners were murdered.

Is that the place built on a sink hole? The Corvette museum not the Green Family bowling alley.

For coins, it began with the first collector and remains firmly entrenched in the hobby.

That, takes care of that.

Arghhhh ! Gettest thou digits forth from thine 1795 dollar. 'Ner touch nor fondle a collector coin withist thou oily palm. Need straight on, sharp photos of both sides, description of edge, weight, etc. Members will determine the variety and suggest your next action. "And the ultrasound meter." Is the coin pregnant? PS: See -- https://coinweek.com/counterfeits/struck-counterfeit-coins-a-family-of-struck-fake-draped-bust-dollars/