RWB

"Toning." A subjective description of the visual appearance of surface chemical reactions.

Competing bidders can change everything.

Samples from hoards accumulations, documentation and ship wrecks indicate that DE were of MS 65-66 on average upon leaving a US Mint. A bag of 250 pieces might span a condition range similar to a bag of silver dollars that had received similar handling....Unc 63 to 67/68.

These fakes are struck on contract for SI. Since the tokens were never used as money, they are nominally legal....but it remains of questionable ethical appropriateness.

Yes. All defective coins were destroyed and replaced with good pieces. If the coin had come from a bank or individual, the Philadelphia Mint would have treated it as bullion and then paid the owner only the bullion value. (If the total weight were correct, that would be face value.) For internal treasury and sub-treasury transactions there was a fund to reimburse the mint for light weight gold that was recoined.

rmpsrpms - Interesting overlay . Thanks! It really emphases how the entirety of modeling on the imitation is "off." Amazing how that could get screwed up --- the Philadelphia Mint has the original cast.

FYI - it is a medal -- not a coin. It has no monetary value. (And no artistic value either, in my opinion.)

Go to: http://ec2-13-58-222-16.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/wiki/Home The look in the left column. You'll see Morgan and Peace dollars by date and mint. The listing are extensive -- and sometimes bewildering.

The following reports a delamination of a double eagle of unspecified date - probably 1880 or 1881. February 21, 1881 Sir, I forward this day by Registered mail a $20.00 gold coin. By reason of imperfection in metal a small piece has scaled off; the detached piece is also enclosed, and there appears to be full weight required by law. I will thank you to deposit the value thereof to my credit in Transfer Account, with the Assistant Treasurer of you City, and forward Certificate of Deposit to this Office. /s/ James Gilfillan, Treasurer U.S.

Van Allen-Mallis (VAM) varieties are mostly combinations of obverse and reverse dies, or sub-varieties of these. Varieties are unique to each mint. That is, different mints did not reuse the same dies.

It's an ugly medal of some sort, evidently trying to profit from the death of a few thousand people when the RMS Titanic sank in 1912. As JZ noted, unless there's a declaration of precious metal content and purity on the edge, it's merely made of junk metal.

#1 and #3 are 1877. #2 is 1876. Yes, #3 is a proof. After looking a most of the Heritage 1877 lots plus some from 1871 and 1872, Weakness affects both "Ns" and the "E" of cent; a clearer descriptive term is "weak center" or maybe "shallow center." I feel it's likely the hub was defective: partially collapsed in the center. There also appear (appear !) to be several bins of this defect indicating either multiple dies or degradation. The photos are not uniform. Given the mintage, I favor multiple dies with differences attributable to stages of collapse of the hub. In other words: It seems likely that several reverse dies were used in 1877, all from the same hub but at differing degrees of defect. This could be established and checked by: 1) comparing 1877s with "shallow N" of previous dates; and 2) examining 1877s for small die differences not related to the central reverse. The actual reverse working dies might have been made much earlier. For example, here's an 1869 cent reverse that shows some of the characteristics of image #1 (most pronounced in the "Ns"), but possibly an earlier stage of hub collapse.

Yep. Another difficulty is that since the 1913 date dies were not approved for use, and pieces made from them would not be legal tender - so they are not really coins. I use "novodel" based on the designs being made at the Philadelphia Mint, but the date not being legitimate. This is a requisition for 1913-date dies for San Francisco (similar for Denver). I do not have anything stating when these were received. November 13, 1912 The Superintendent of the Mint at San Francisco has made requisition for the following coinage dies for the calendar year 1913: Five pairs double eagle dies Five pairs Eagle dies Five pairs half eagle dies Ten pairs half dollar dies Ten pairs quarter dollar dies Ten pairs dime dies Ten pairs 5-cent dies Ten pairs 1-cent dies [Nov 29 dies req for Denver; Dec 5 – additional dies for Denver]

The illustration coins were selected at random - mostly similar color - all are dated in the 1870s per the 1870 hub mentioned by Conder101.

Here are three indian cents. Select the 1877 coin.

That works, too. "Business strike" is evidently another Breen-ism that deserves to be tossed in the trash bin along with "Roman proof" and other rubbish.

Prior to 1882 the mints routinely carried a stock of old dies, primarily reverses. These were used indiscriminately as needed. Thus, reappearance of an obsolete version - in this case with a "shallow N" - no longer becomes so much of an oddity. (See my post "Explanation for handling and reissue of reverse dies" and the letter from Dir. Burchard.) That all 1877 cent reverses observed are from the same hub, does not mean that all are from the same reverse die. Using the limited data on cent die life, it is improbable, as Mr. Snow notes, that all the cents of that year used the same reverse die. No discrepancies in production data are evident, so we have to then take a better look at the supposed die use.

Filling time until Ptolemy and Eastern Roman followers show up.

The lobby photo begs for a Medicare sign-up booth. Lori from Whitman is a real gem --- Notice, also, that she is an official Show Referee and wears her stripes proudly. Is she calling the Raven’s game on Sunday? The 3pm photo is a big turn-off for anyone hoping to drop in and learn a bit. However, the tables look a lot better than usual. Great job for Whitman in producing the show.

Thanks you! Yep. ALL coin and medal strikes are part of the Mint's "business." Just as we say "proof coin" we should also differentiate by saying "circulation coin" or similar. That conveys more accurate information about the coin or medal.

Only in Kyiv [Київ] !

November 2021 update. NARA in College Park, MD is operating very slowly based on individual appointments, tightly limited occupancy, and single-day use. None of the copy or photo stands are open. Whatever that is not finished during one day is refiled and you have to request another appointment, repeating all of the boxes or volumes wanted. Most of the documents members requested require use of the photo stands and lights. I don't have any idea when these will be available....it could be months or another year.

I suspect that at least 5 of the 6 were used in 1877; however, I also suspect that the sample of 1877 cents for which a specific reverse die can be identified to much too small to be statistically meaningful. That is, more than one rev die could be identified if we had a larger sample of coins, in high enough grade, to detect the small differences between one die and another. Another detail is that these are dies destroyed, with a few exceptions including 4 cent reverses. One of these reverse dies might have been a proof die. Also, there were 3 obverse dies destroyed, presumably including the proof obverse. Unlike most other years, this report does not break out proof coin dies. It's possible another letter includes that information, but it hasn't been found as yet.

62 or 63. Cheek and neck are far too scraped and rough for anything more.

Nice coin. Did it come with a "Disinfection Certificate" due to the Breen handling?