Q. David Bowers
The term bifurcated was used extensively by Bolender, and refers to letters and numerals around the periphery of an early dollar which seem to be split at their bases. Thus, the letter I, if bifurcated, will have the bottom of the vertical shaft split or forked.
During the striking process for a coin in an open collar, the metal that starts to fill up the vertical shaft of the I will continue to expand outward (toward the rim) along that shaft, leaving the base of the upright unfilled. If the dies come no closer together after this happens, the letter I (in this example) will appear bifurcated. The bases of other letters will remain incomplete as well, the degree of bifurcation depending upon the depth of the strike and the shapes of the letters. Those letters with long, vertical uprights will be affected the most, and the effect will be more noticeable if there are serifs struck up at their bases.
On the other hand, if the strike is adequate and the dies continue to come closer together, the base of the shaft will ultimately fill up with the silver alloy metal, and the planchet will mold itself to the design in the dies, and outward expansion will be inhibited.
A variant type of bifurcation was caused by metal flow, when a planchet with an insufficiently upset rim (a too-flat slope up to the rim raised during the lettering of the edge on the blank planchet), or too loosely fit within the collar, was struck, and the metal in the planchet flowed outward toward the collar, especially if the strike was not deep enough to fully bring up all aspects of the design, and to fill all the die recesses.
Any characters in the die near the border-and this usually meant stars, letters (especially letters with long, vertical shafts), or date numerals would then sustain flow marks, or bifurcations, at the inner edges of the characters. Sometimes, the bifurcation process made the letters around the border appear ornate or fancy, as in examples of 1799 B-8 [BB-165] examined by Bolender and found to have the letters of the word LIBERTY with extensive bifurcations. As one of many coins that could be cited, an example of 1795 BB-18 studied by the author had beveled, flattened innermost star rays, and bifurcated tops to the 1 and 9 in the date. Often, stars appear lopsided, with the rays toward the center shortened, due to the bifurcation process.
Apparently, Bolender had no clue as to what bifurcation marks really were. He must have considered them to be a product of die deterioration or perhaps repunching, for in some instances he assigned a separate subvariety number to coins with bifurcation marks. An example is provided by Bolender's 1799 B-10 (BB-163), which has no bifurcation marks, and his Bolender-10b, from the same dies, "and with the letters much bifurcated."
Similarly, 1800 Bolender-16a (BB-187) was described as follows: "From the same dies as Bolender-16, but with most letters bifurcated." Other examples could be cited. As noted earlier, Bolender was not alone in knowing little about minting processes. The excellent findings of Breen, Julian, Taxay, and others were yet to be discovered and disseminated.
As we understand the minting process today, a planchet which had a properly upset rim and/or was tightly fit into the collar would have minimal metal flow near the rims, and no bifurcation marks would result. If a planchet had an insufficient upset rim and was significantly smaller in diameter than the collar, then it was a candidate for bifurcation marks, as metal flow occurred in an outward direction from the center. If such a planchet was loosely placed in the dies, close to the collar on one side and distant from it on the other side, then bifurcation marks would occur on the side most distant from the collar-as the metal flow to the collar was greatest there.
Stack's catalogue of the sale of the W. Earl Spies Collection, 1974, offered a specialized cabinet of early dollars described very carefully. Among the 1801-dated dollars were these three coins:
1801 [BB-211] B-1. Wide date. Small dot next to center dot. Most of the letters not bifurcated. VF, delicate toning.
1801 [BB-211] B-1a. Dies as above. The letters are lightly but mostly bifurcated. VG.
1801 [BB-211] B-1b. Letters not bifurcated (per Bolender, in reference to his observations), but there is now a crack from the wing tip through "STA" through the clouds to first "A" of AMERICA. "Waves" through "ERICA." Fine, with some scratches across the obverse.
Per the preceding, it is apparent that a particular variety of 1801 dollar was struck with most letters not bifurcated. Then, a specimen was struck from the same dies, with most letters bifurcated. Then, the reverse die cracked, and in this later use, the coin struck from the dies was not bifurcated. In other words, bifurcation had nothing to do with the life or wear of the dies.
Sometimes a die pair would be used to strike many loose-fitting planchets, with many coins with bifurcated features resulting. Other times, a die pair would be utilized to strike closely-fitting planchets, with no resultant bifurcation. Contrary to what Bolender stated, the absence or presence of bifurcation does not constitute a separate die variety, or even a die state.
Accordingly, in the specialized descriptions of individual die varieties in this book, in instances in which Bolender used bifurcated letters as an attribution guide, I have deleted these references or have modified them to state, for example, "often seen with bifurcated letters," "Bolender reported specimens with bifurcated letters," etc. There is the strong possibility that any variety that Bolender saw with bifurcated letters or other features may also exist without bifurcations. In the present work, bifurcation is not a determinant of die varieties or states. (The author acknowledges the assistance of Thomas K. DeLorey (letter dated November 18, 1992), Bill Fivaz (letter dated November 16, 1992), and Harry E. Salyards, M.D. (letter dated December 4, 1992) concerning the commentary on bifurcation.)
The same process that caused bifurcation in the vertically-oriented elements, border letters, stars and numerals sometimes affected horizontal parts of letters and numerals as well. If at the border, the metal flow was "sliding" outward from the center, it might skim over a thin horizontal element in the die, such as the thin line at the bottom or top of the letter E or D, and fill in the serifs, but not the thin line. Thus, for example, certain specimens of 1798 BB-94 appear as if the tops of E and D in UNITED are broken; it is logical, and is a fact, that the vertical elements of these same letters are heavily bifurcated.
With regard to stars, the bifurcation process sometimes makes the point facing toward the center of the coin seem smaller or shortened. On some strikings of the Heraldic Eagle reverse, the bottom rays of the stars thus appear smaller or even defective, an idiosyncrasy of the striking of the particular coin involved-and a situation not related to die preparation or a die state.