Another Sunday Morning Guess the Overton and Grade

[jtryka]

Picked this one up a while back, pretty well circulated over 198 years:

[TomB]

Looks like an O.102, which is an R1, and although the image is somewhat blury I would grade it VF20.

[MikeKing]

I'm not totally convinced. What if it's an O-101, an R5?

[jtryka]

I'm not totally convinced. What if it's an O-101, an R5?

 

Well you wouldn't hear me complaining about that!

[TomB]

I'm not totally convinced. What if it's an O-101, an R5?

Then the coin would have a different obverse.

[MBA101]

Does it have a row of clashmark segments above the eagle's head?

[jtryka]

It's hard to tell with all the wear, though looking at it from a distance and at angles it appears there is a clash mark, like a series of bumps in a line where Liberty's neck line would be.

[MBA101]

2 other things to look at:

 

What does the edge look like between Dollar and Fifty?

 

And is there a die crack on the obverse around the date and another on the reverse at the top of United States of America?

[Denver Dave]

 

That's a tuffy, would almost have to have it in hand to be 100%

 

What about a 103...?

 

The stars are almost to fat at the base for a 102...

 

But maybe it's just my eye's..."-)

 

Knowing the edge type would help as MBA has brought up...

[jtryka]

Well, I looked at the edge and it didn't seem to be either of the different type edges, but with the wear on the coin it was tough to tell. In any case, I sent this one in to NGC with my 5 freebie submissions so we'll see what they think!

[MikeKing]

I'm not totally convinced. What if it's an O-101, an R5?

Then the coin would have a different obverse.

 

how would the obverse be different?

 

(serious question because there was a supposed R5 up for sale on ebay that I thought was a 102 instead.)

 

ps it's a nice coin jtryka, good luck with the ngc analysis!

[jtryka]

I'm not totally convinced. What if it's an O-101, an R5?

Then the coin would have a different obverse.

 

how would the obverse be different?

 

(serious question because there was a supposed R5 up for sale on ebay that I thought was a 102 instead.)

 

ps it's a nice coin jtryka, good luck with the ngc analysis!

 

Thanks Mike, but unfortunately none of the TPGs are perfect with these attributions, so even if they think it's a rare variety may not make it so.

[TomB]

I'm not totally convinced. What if it's an O-101, an R5?

Then the coin would have a different obverse.

 

how would the obverse be different?

 

(serious question because there was a supposed R5 up for sale on ebay that I thought was a 102 instead.)

 

ps it's a nice coin jtryka, good luck with the ngc analysis!

I've seen folks mention O.101, O.102 and O.103 within this thread with my position being that the coin is an O.102. The reverse is easy to narrow down since it shows the diagnostics of reverse A, which is only paired within the O.101, O.102 and O.110 die marriages.

 

It is easy to see that the U of UNITED is broadly recut and it appears that the first A in AMERICA is lower at its base than the adjacent M and that they appear to touch at the base. These are two of the diagnostics for reverse A. If this is reverse A, and I believe it is, then the O.103 die marriage, which was thrown into the mix during the discussion, is disqualified.

 

Therefore, does the coin have obverse 1, obverse 2 or obverse 5? The resolution of the obverse image is unfortunately quite low, however, the orientation of star points from stars 8-13 may give us some information. The relative orientation of star points 8-9 and 10-11 do not appear to conform to the orientation of obverse 1, and that of star points 8-9 do not appear to conform to the orientation of obverse 5, but they do look similar to those shown for obverse 2. In my opinion, this is obverse 2.

 

The die pair of obverse 2 with reverse A is the O.102 species.

[jtryka]

Thanks for the great response Tom! Although I would love for this coin to be a rarer variety like the O-101, I am afraid I agree with your assessment. Either way, I like the coin very much, and I didn't pay a lot for it as I recall which makes it even better!