Fun '21.

[SkyMan]

I bought this Peace dollar because it had such a nice strike. I bought it as a MS62, which seemed about right to me (I'd be intrigued as to what you would grade it). When I got it home and in a different light I saw what appeared to be tooling above the back of the eagle and in front of the eagle's neck. As you know, the Eagles on Peace dollars often have a "halo" around them from metal flow. Camouflaged within this "halo" it looked like the fields had been worked. Needless to say, this p1ssed me off, and I couldn't really understand why any tooling would be done, as due to the hits on the obverse the coin would never make it to a 63, and it seemed a pretty obvious UNC to me, so even tooling a whopping hit on the reverse wouldn't make much of a financial difference to the coin, and obviously could destroy the value of it.

 

Anyhow, I called the dealer and he said he would take the coin back from me. I saw him again a couple weeks later at the Santa Clara show to return the coin, and he mentioned I might show the coin to Dave at the NGC table. I did, and learned that what I thought was tooling was actually a harsh repolish to deal with a clashed die.

 

There are four noticeable clash areas I can find. 1) Follow the rays down from the E in E PLURIBUS and right above the eagle's back you will see the clash from the bridge of Liberty's nose. 2) The tip of the ray coming down from the R in PLURIBUS has what appears to be a V on it. This is actually the clash impression from where Liberty's neck and chin meet. 3) In front of the eagle's neck there appears to be another ray. This is actually the clash from the back of Liberty's neck. 4) Finally, and much more faintly, under the second U of UNUM there are some swirls which I believe are the clashes from Liberty's hair.

 

Later on at the Santa Clara show I got talking with another board member who also had a nicely struck '21 Peace, and when I looked at his (PCGS MS63) coin low and behold it had the same diagnostics.

 

It's always fun to learn something new, and this coin certainly gave me an education. The images are courtesy of Bob Campbell and I think he did an excellent job.

 

 

 

 

[MBA101]

Neat! Thanks for sharing! Always nice to learn a bit about a particular coin. Any idea what the VAM is?

[MarkFeld]

Sky, nothing against the coin, but when I saw your thread title, I thought I'd be reading about your experiences from the 1921 FUN show

[James_OldeTowne]

Definitely die-polish!

[MAULEMALL]

Definitely die-polish!

There are many VAMs for the 21 Peace

[TomB]

This is what I wrote ATS-

The images make it appear to be classic die polish lines and not the result of tooling on the coin. There is a big difference between these two states.

[rrantique]

Great example Sy and nice photos Bob. Thanks for posting

[Prethen]

2021 FUN show?

[bsshog40]

Cool 21' Sky. thanks for the info. Not that I'll ever have a 21' to look at.