Confederate Obverse on a Seated O Half

[WinstonWare]

The description that they are giving of this coin reads, “FS-007 CSA OBV.” Does anyone know what feature they are seeing that makes the obverse a confederate obverse? I’m not very well versed in these seated halves.

 

Thanks for any insight!!!

 

 

[MBA101]

No idea, but it is in an NGC holder and looks to be a beautiful original specimen. Rather pricey though...

[WinstonWare]

Yup a little pricey for me. I was more just wondering for my own knowledge. I can’t afford the coin right now.

[123cents]

Some of these had distinguishing die cracks and some are distinguished by the position of the date. That all I know Winston.

[WinstonWare]

Well that would make sense that a later die state of the1861-O would be a CSA half

[TomB]

A general way to tell these CSA halves is to find a die crack from Ms. Liberty's nose to the rim, which I do not see on this specimen. However, there were multiple die pairs used by the CSA, so this die crack is not a requirement.

[WoodenJefferson]

All 1861-0 half dollars were struck with the same provided US dies. The 1861-O (New Orleans) includes about 300,000 struck under the flag of US Gov, 1.2 million for the State of Louisiana after it seceded from the Union. An additional mintage of about 900,000 were created after the Louisiana joined the Confederate States of America.

 

To me, there is no way to tell the difference between what was struck when...the obv die crack is a diagnostic feature that may be in play to determine under who's authority, but I am not aware of this.

[Conder101]

There are I believe five different die pairs that were used to strike the 1861-O halves by the Confederacy. This one (obv 5 I believe) was also used to strike the four pattern Confederate half dollars. The key identifying feature is, as Tom said, a die crack from the rim past star 7 to the bridge of Liberty's nose. This die also comes without the crack, but it is much scarcer and was used before the CSA patterns were struck.

 

Since this die pair tends to be popular and therefor a bit pricy, I'm looking for one of the other die pairs for my "Confederate Half Dollar".

[MikeInFL]

Just how "sure" are we that these coins were actually struck by the Confederacy? I seem to recall an article (Gobrecht Journal?) that called into question which of the die pairs were actually used by the CSA. Just wondering...Mike

[Conder101]

If there is it would have to be in issue #99 and I don't believe it is out yet. Issue 94 identified all of the dies and gave the initial breakdown of which varieties were coined by which government. In it the first three were credited to the Union, the next six to LA, and the last five to the CSA. Ther was some question about which one the fourth and the ninth varieties belonged to. In issue #97 they examined the assignment of varieties to the governments in more depth and the conclusions were that the Union only made the first two varieties, not three. LA made varieties 3 through 8 instead of 4 through 9. And the CSA made 9 through 15 instead of 10 through 15. (The Obv die shown here, which IS die 5, was used to strike variety #11, so it is well in the CSA camp.

 

In effect the number of Union varieties decreased by one and the number of Confederate varieties increased by one.

[WinstonWare]

Thanks guys. Helpful insights

[James_OldeTowne]

There are I believe five different die pairs that were used to strike the 1861-O halves by the Confederacy. This one (obv 5 I believe) was also used to strike the four pattern Confederate half dollars. The key identifying feature is, as Tom said, a die crack from the rim past star 7 to the bridge of Liberty's nose. This die also comes without the crack, but it is much scarcer and was used before the CSA patterns were struck.

On the open market, the coin with the die-crack is THE coin to get regardless of what the slab says. They will always bring a substantial premium over the other Confederate strikes, because it is so easy to identify. If you just want a single coin to represent the Confederacy, I would urge you to purchase only the coin with the die-crack. I would not pay much of a premium (if any) for the subject coin without the diagnostic.

 

As recently as a couple of months ago, I know someone who cherry-picked a die-crack coin from a dealer who didn't realize what he had.