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Stars About to Shrink by Electric Peak Collection

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  • Member: Seasoned Veteran

Another unattributed 1838 Small Stars Half Dime

 

In a Heritage session a couple days ago, there was an MS66 1838 half dime that caught my eye. Even on such a small coin, it is a naked eye variety: the Valentine-1, Small Stars die marriage. Even the earliest known state of the obverse die shows obvious evidence of die rust, most notably on Miss Liberty's left arm (holding the pole), by which the die can be identified uniquely. But being in an early state of the die, the stars are not yet significantly reduced in size. As such, PCGS does not designate it as Small Stars. But the holder insert of this coin specifically says "Lg Stars". Should that be considered a mistake?

 

I think that if any star size is specified for this obverse die, it should say Small Stars and a "die stage" as commonly used by specialists. That way, it is clear what the coin really is. Or it could at least say it is a V-1 (for the early and middle die stages) or V-2 (for the late stage(s), paired with a different reverse die). I think it would be better for the label to be silent about the stars than to say this is a large stars variety. (And when the TPGs do say Small Stars (or any other designation for any coin), they should get it right. I have seen a number of Small Stars designations that are incorrect.)

 

In any case, to my sensibilities the price on the coin in question was right, and I bought it. The obverse photo is below.

 

I will be at the Baltimore show, but I am not sure exactly when yet. A work meeting may cause me to shuffle my Thursday and Friday afternoon plans. Either way, I have my eyes on a few more half dimes...

 

Alan

17702.jpg

 

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I agree- the problem is caused by too many inexperienced graders, or graders proficient in some series but not others due to lack of hands-on experience. Some of us specialize in only one series most of our life, some only a few series, so we know them well but not others. Having collected capped bust half dollars since the earliest days in my 51 year collecting career I know them well, yet I still see many mistakes in professional holders including PCGS and NGC, and often I'll see a poorly struck mint state coin labeled XF45 or AU50 even though the mint luster is perfect and unbroken everywhere except where the planchet was raw. (the high points of the design that didn't strike up remain crude like the surfaces of the unpolished planchet) Same thing goes for half eagles, which I am very fond of- gold, especially in grades above XF40, tends to be problematic, and in fact took me decades to perfect my grading ability to the point that I regularly get better grades from the top two TPGs than I expect, by the tune of about 10-20% more oftenb than expected. On the rare occasions I get a lower grade than expected, it usually involves the planchet condition or the strike, and you could include the occasional sunken and improperly annealed dies for either of these series too. The point is, the more difficult a series to grade, the more proficient the grader *should* be, in my humble opinion. Until the TPGs address this crucial situation, we will see more very obvious mistakes. In your case, I would point out their error politely and request them to correct it at their expense since it was their mistake. Best of luck with it my friend!

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