Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins 1722-1989

1850

Half Cent. Small berries only from now on. Two microscopic rev. vars., those of business strikes. About a dozen known, equally divided. Brobston's was double struck at date, later LM 3/68:155, 6/71:541. "Dupont": 1110 had the first reverse (heavier letters).

Cent. N-9. Weak date, base of 0 away from border, small dot (die chip) below eye; die file marks within ONE CENT. (1) Mehl, Clapp, ANS. (2) Hines, Sheldon, Ernest Henderson, "Sheraton," T. James Clarke:359. (3) Reported.

_ N-11. Stronger date, base of 0 double cut (as on many other proofs of this date), and very near border; date slants slightly down, tops of 185 close to device though successively less so. (1) Crawford (Steigerwalt 5/13/1894):527, Beckwith: 110, S. H. Chapman, J. C.Morgenthau:7 /27 /39:774, Phila. Estate. (2) Newcomb II:747, Floyd Starr, N.Y. private coll. (3) Dr. French as "Andrews 12", T. James Clarke:361, apparently W. L. Carson, LM 2/72:74. (4) W. F. Morgan: 374, Mehl, T. James Clarke:360. (5) Specimen offered by W. F. Webb to Homer Downing, July 3, 1941. One other reported.
Half Dime. *V-2. High date, 185 touch base, 0 barely free, shield point nearer tip than left upright of 1, skirt pendant a little left of tip of 5, left base of lover left edge of dentil. Rev. Often with line (clash mark?) at TES. (1) Valentine, exhibited ANS 1914, pictured in his half dime book. (2) Bullowa, May 1952. (3) Philip G. Straus estate, privately sold. (4) NN 34:463, impaired. (5) Brand, NN, Numisma July 1954. At least one other seen. Neil: 1628 and Golden 1:910 may be this variety. W. L. Carson's was unchecked.

_ *Not in V. Low date slants up, shield point slightly left of upright, left base of lover space but favoring r. edge of dentil, pendant about as on last. Die file marks below date and r. Rev. H free of leaf. Heman Ely coll. (Woodward 1/84):959, Garrett: 109, $2600, Joe Flynn.

- *Not in V. Fairly high date, 1 about touches base, 8 almost touches it, 50 free but close. The heavy parallel die file marks slant up to left of 1; skirt pendant minutely r. of tip of 5, left base of 1 about over r. edge of dentil; rather delicate letters and stars. Virgil Brand estate, Landau: 379.

Eliasberg has a questionable proof with obv. V-5 (date very low, plain center dot) and new reverse with H firmly joined to adjacent leaf. Another (from different dies?) was seen in the stock of Kenneth W. Lee about 1963 along with various other proofs of the period.

Dime. *B-5. Date slants down to r., placed low, well away from base; shield point a trifle r. of tip of 1, skirt pendant left of central over top of 5. About 3 or 4 seen in all, the best of these being ex Brand, Landau:451.

Quarter. Low date, shield point about over left edge of 8, left base of lover right part of dentil. Prohibitively rare. Wayte Raymond had seen only one; I have records of only two aside from those in the unseen proof sets. (1) H. P. Smith: 820, excessively high knife-rims (restrike?). (2) "J. H. South":515. Present whereabouts of either coin unknown, if indeed they are not. the same piece. One reappeared in. RARCOA's 1976 Central States sale:218, to Reed Hawn.

Half Dollar. Several die varieties, all extremely rare.

- Very high date, 1 of date almost touching base, numerals slant down a little to right. Boyd, WGC:300, Adolph Friedman, 1946 ANA: 832.

- Alleged "shift": stars and part of rocky base and seated figure show double impressions, "recutting" (?) on date, possibly Beistle 2-Aa. WGC:301, impaired. Is this just a double striking of the following?

- *High date, 185 about equidistant from base, the 0 minutely lower; numerals nearly thickness of top of 5 away from base; base of 0 in date double punched. Virgil Brand estate, Landau: 580. Possibly reappearing as Lichtenfels I:2831 (Feb. 1961), R. E. Cox:1921, KS 5/66:1200, and possibly again as Reed Hawn; 171 at $1,200.

Not identifiable as to variety among the above: (1) Norweb. (2) "Dupont" :2137 at $120 to Horland. (3) Dr. R. H. Wilson, 1952 ANA:324, L. Belinger. (4) Thomas L. Smith estate:698. (5) One other seen in a dealer's stock about 1961 - same as last?

Silver Dollar. B-1. Normal date, not recut. Rev. Die file marks or the like fill most of shield except the northwest sector of white stripes at left. Two arrows join. Line slants down to r. through azure at r., ending at its lower r. corner. Striae mostly extending northeast. Faint cracks through ON and TED (not constant?). Struck before the business strikes from these or the B-2 dies, therefore original. Byron Reed estate, Omaha City Library. This rev. recurs on B-2 business strikes, which have same obv. as *B-3 below. The Steckler ($5000) and Garrett:267 ($6250 to "X") pieces have not been available for examination.

- *B-3. Base of 0 double punched. Die file marks nearly horizontally below zero. Rev. of the 1840-49 proofs. Perfect and later with heavy crack through base of date, the cracked die coins sometimes with unnatural high knife-rims. (1) Boyd, WGC:141, Adolph Friedman, 1946 ANA: 1330. (2) F. J. Schaefer, ca. 1942, Phila. Estate. Perfect die. (3) Newcomer, Lohr:860. (4) Geiss:345, Amon Carter Sr. & Jr. (5) Cass, "Empire":1734. (6) Dr. Clifford Smith: 1185. (7) 1974 ANA:22 at $4000, cost $4750. The last three may represent two or three of those earlier mentioned. The above listing excludes the obvious restrikes; see Restrikes and Fantasy Pieces, below.