Collecting Capped Bust Half-Dimes
Capped Bust Half-Dimes were only minted from 1829 through 1837, a brief span of only 9 years with mintage's from 2,760,000 (1835) to 871,000 (1837). Most of the other dates have mintage's that hover around 1.3 million. By date only, none are particularly difficult or expensive to obtain. While collecting by date is relatively easy, collecting by variety can challenge even the most knowledgeable and patient collector.
Currently 92 die marriages and 31 re-marriages for a total of 123 different combinations exist. Far more than the 12-18 varieties (depending which issue you have) that the Red Book lists.
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Capped Bust Half-Dimes were only minted from 1829 through 1837, a brief span of only 9 years with mintage's from 2,760,000 (1835) to 871,000 (1837). Most of the other dates have mintage's that hover around 1.3 million. By date only, none are particularly difficult or expensive to obtain. While collecting by date is relatively easy, collecting by variety can challenge even the most knowledgeable and patient collector.
Currently 92 die marriages and 31 re-marriages for a total of 123 different combinations exist. Far more than the 12-18 varieties (depending which issue you have) that the Red Book lists.
Please tell me what you think about this site. Suggestions are encouraged and always welcome. [email protected]
Who ever said building a website was easy apparently never built a web site....
Collecting Capped Bust Half-Dimes by Variety
Collecting this series by die variety is not the daunting task that the dime, quarter and half dollar variety collector faces. Currently the series has 92 die marriages and 31 remarriages for a total of 123 varieties. Of these 123, only a half dozen fall into the stratosphere of R7 and R8’s. Keep in mind that innumerable coins sit in dealer cases waiting to be discovered. This is quite contrary to the Capped Bust dimes, quarters and half dollars that have been repeatedly scrutinized by the variety collector hoping to find an elusive and overlooked key specimen.
While the collector base of Half-Dime variety collectors is small relative to dime, quarter and half dollar collectors, it is rapidly growing. In 2011 the John Reich Journal www.jrcs.org published a census of Capped Bust Half-Dimes. Comparing the 2011 census to the previous census (2008) showed eight varieties dropping a point in the rarity scale. During this same time period a completely new variety, 1835 LM-12, was discovered. This certainly indicates an increase in the number of eyes searching dealer cases for elusive and new varieties. The prudent variety collector can certainly enhance his collection and or his financial portfolio by keeping a keen eye out.
A brief primer on die marriages and remarriages. 200 years ago coin dies were expensive, handmade and time consuming to make. Back then when a die became damaged or unusable in some way it would be pulled, repaired and placed back in service. Remember too that at times obverse dies with previous dates may have been used after the end of the calendar year. After all, no sense throwing away a perfectly good obverse die just because it has last years date on it!
Using the E reverse die as an example we'll show how this worked. Reverse E was first used in 1829 paired with the obverse 4 die which created the 1829 LM-6.1. At some point, perhaps due to clashed dies, the obverse 4 die was pulled and replaced with the obverse 5 die (creating the LM-7 variety) and mintage continued. At some point the obverse 5 die was pulled and replaced by the obverse 4 die used earlier creating the LM-6.2. By this point the reverse E die was showing some degradation with the first diagonal of the N filling with a die chip. Also seen is a small cud above M and a die crack forms from the rim through the top of E 3. For the purposes here, discussions on remarriages are brief. For more in depth discussion on marriages and remarriages and the Capped Bust Half-Dime series an investment in the hard to find Logan - McCloskey book entitled, "Federal Half Dimes 1792-1837" is money well spent.
Of the 123 die marriages and remarriages noted earlier, only six fall into the rarity of R-7 and R-8’s. Of these six, four are remarriages leaving only two varieties (1833 LM-5 and 1835 LM-12) as stumbling blocks to completion of the 92 coin marriages.
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The images on this site are from my personal collection, Heritage Auction and PCGS and are gratefully acknowledged and used with their permission.