1843 Half dime with shattered reverse die

[RGT]

I just picked up this coin off of eBay in a SEGS holder. I know some are recomending to never buy anything is a SEGS holder (among others) but sometimes you can find something interesting in any holder. This is only the second SEGS coin that I ever bought. The first was a bust half dime that SEGS graded MS63. The SEGS reputation let me pick that one up at low AU money and ANACS put it in an AU58 holder. Maybe this 1843 half dime is counterfeit.

 

Anyway, about the coin...

 

The auction pictures were bad, of course, but it was listed as a shattered reverse on the holder and that got me interested. I suspected that the coin was dipped since the images were bright but I had hopes that it wasn't cleaned harshly. This is what arrived in the mail.

 

 

In hand the coin is actually lighter than the pictures show and doesn't look quite as nice. My camera seems to always make the slightest brown tone darker. It does appear to have secondary tone after a dip but there are no signs of a harsh cleaning. SEGS graded it AU55 and that seems pretty close.

 

Valentine lists a shattered reverse die for the year as V-4. But, when I was looking up the population in the latest LSCC census it was noted that several collectors reported an unlisted shattered reverse for the year that was different from the V-4. The census listed 31 V-4 and 15 of these unlisted shattered reverse coins. So I pulled out my book and compared my coin to the description of the V-4 cracks and they don't match. I can only assume that I have the unlisted variety.

 

It is an interesting coin and I am happy with my new SEGS coin. Here is a larger shot to show off the cracks a bit.

 

[physics-fan3.14]

Very cool!

[toyonakataro]

Here's my 1843 with cracks and the running directions are totally different from yours.....cool (thumbs u

[EZ_E]

Hella cool, Randy! (thumbs u

[Dwaine]

Amazing that the die was still able to make coins.

 

That is pretty amazing coin to me.

 

(thumbs u (thumbs u

[RGT]

Here's my 1843 with cracks and the running directions are totally different from yours.....cool (thumbs u

 

Thanks for posting that. I couldn't find a good picture of the V-4 in the Heritage archives. Yours has cracks that match the description for V-4 given by Blythe. But Valentine says that V-4 used the same cracked reverse die as V-2. I can't tell from the small pictures in Valentine if your obverse die is from the V-2 die or the V-4 die, but odds are it is a V-4.

 

I'm still waiting for a better book about these tiny coins.

[TomB]

Both of those half dimes are pretty darn amazing with the shattered reverse dies.

[dean1345]

Sweeeeet!