E-Gobrecht, vol. 4, no. 9a

2008·1.4 MB·English

LibertySeated
The E-Gobrecht CollectorsClub
2008 Volume4,Issue9
TheElectronicNewsletteroftheLIBERTYSEATEDCOLLECTORSCLUB
Sept2008(Whole#42)
John McCloskey and Len Augsburger
What’sInsidethisissue?
on the Internet Radio !
AuctionNews 2
byJimGray
Twoofour LibertySeated maticbackground and accom- Questionofthemonthby 3
PaulKluth
CollectorsClub officerswere plishments whichmerited this
interviewed atthe 2008ANA award. It iswellworthhearing.
HitsontheE-Gobrechton 4
and their interviews areon the Checkit out! GerryFortin’swebsite
internet. DaveHarper,Editor of
DaveHarper interviewed SeatedDimeWeb-book 5-6
NumismaticNews, a weeklynu-
LenAugsburger onthebourse updatesandotherRam-
mismaticnewspaper and host blingsbyGerryFortin
floor oftheANA. Lenhad a
oftheCoinChatradio,con-
boursetableand displayfor his
JasonFeldmanshares 7
ducted on-the-spotinterviews
newbook,TreasureintheCel- anotherinterestingseated
with JohnMcCloskey and Len lar,ATaleofDepression–Era dimevariety
Augsburger atthe2008ANA
Baltimore,thestory oftwoboys
Nominationsforthe2009 7
World’sFair ofMoneyConven-
who unearthed afortuneingold LSCCHallofFame
tionlast monthinBaltimore.
coinsinaBaltimore basement
UpdateontheeBay1873- 8
Johnwas interviewed im- in1934. In hisinterview,Len
SNo-Arrowshalfdollar
mediately after theclub’san- summarizesthestoryand dis-
nual meeting where, inaspecial cusseshowhebecameinter- 1853ArrowsHalfDime 8-9
variety
ceremony,hewasoneofthe ested in thisstory.
firsttwoinducteesintothe Thisinterview canbefound on SubscriberCorrespon- 10
LSCCHallof Fame (KamAh- dence
theinternetat
wash was theother inductee;
http://www.coinchatradio.com/d InformationWanted,
hisdaughter Michele accepted AvailabilityofPastIssues
ownloads.htm thendownload 11
theplaquefor him). Theinter- oftheE-Gobrecht,and
theAugust 21stissue#24. Advertisements
viewcanbe found on theinter-
Len’sinterviewstartsatabout
net at
24:30running time. Thisinter- LSCCInformation 12
http://www.coinchatradio.com/d
viewisinteresting.
ownloads.htm thendownload
Bothdownloadsare very
theAugust 14thissue#23. Congratula-
largefiles of about 50MB;even
John’sinterviewstartsat about
tions
with cableinternet access,this
41:14running time.
download willtakesome timeso
John and
Johndiscussed this
sitback,relax,and prepareto
award and hisextensivenumis- Len!
enjoy.
TheE-GobrechtisatwiceawardwinningelectronicpublicationoftheLibertySeatedCollectorsClub(LSCC). The
LSCCisanon-profitorganizationdedicatedtotheattributionsoftheLibertySeatedCoinseries. TheLSCCprovidestheinfor-
mationcontainedinthisemailnewsletterfromvarioussourcesfreeofchargeasageneralservicetothemembershipandothers
withthisnumismaticinterest. YoudonothavetobeaLSCCmembertobenefitfromthisnewsletter;subscriptiontotheE-
Gobrechtisavailabletoanyone. Alldisclaimersareineffectasthecompletenessand/oraccuracyoftheinformationcontained
hereincannotbecompletelyverified. Contactinformationisincludedattheend.
Page2 The E-Gobrecht
Auction News
by
Jim Gray
TheHeritageANAsalefea- struckAU55ofthesamedatethathadaslightlyglossy
turedtwocatalogues. lookfromanolddippingbuthadretonedinanalbum
soaredto$7,705. Acleaned1853-Onoarrowshalfdime
InthePlatinumNight,an1853-
inXF45realized$862.
OnoarrowshalfdimeinMS63,andabeautywithbluish
greentoning,soldfor$29,900inspiteofthetypical Anoriginal1844dimeinVF20wentfor$862
weaknessatthedateandwreath. andan1871-CCdimeinF15thatwasoriginalandnice
forthegradewentfor$8,625. An1873-CCinAG3with
Aspectacular1844dimeinMS65thatwaswell
acleardateandmintmarkwentfor$2,185andaVF20
struckwithlovelybluetoningwentfor$51,750. An
duplicateandperfectforaF/VFsetroseto$9,200. An-
1872-CCdimeinAU55thatwasoriginalwithafew
other1873-CCdimeinXFbutwithenvironmentaldam-
marksandlightporositysoldfor$37,375. An1873-CC
ageandabsolutelyuglysoldfor$3,737.
dimeinXF40thatwassharpforthegradeandanicecoin
forsomereasondidnotsell. Another1873-CCdimein Awellstruckandbright1852-Ohalfdollar,ex-
AU50wasoncepartofmycollection. Someonecould Eliasberg,inMS64andoneofthethreefinestknownrose
notstandthestrictoriginalityofthecoinandbrightened to$18,400. An1855-ShalfinVF25withthe‘E’gone
it. Despitethecrimecommitted,thecoinsoldfor wentfor$1,955andanotherinAU55withdarktoning
$46,000. andafewspotswentfor$9,775. Anattractive1866-Sno
mottohalfinXF45andaniceexampleofthiselusive
An1873-CCquarterinF12anddecentforthe
datewentfor$2,990. Abright1871-CChalfinXF40
gradedidnotsell,nordidaduplicateinVF25withvery
soldfor$2,990andan1873-CCarrowsinXF45anda
nicetoningandafewfieldmarks.
niceoriginalpiecewentfor$2,760. An1874-CCin
An1870-CChalfdollarthatwaswellstruckand
XF40andperhapsdippedlongagobutretoningsoldfor
lookedoriginalinXF45didnotsell. An1874-CChalfin
$5,750.
MS65withlighttoningandstronglustersoldfor$74,750
An1871-CCdollarinF15andoriginalwith
inspiteofaspotatLiberty’sleftshoulder.
‘BER’gonesoldfor$8,050.
Awellstruck1878-CCtradedollarthatwaswell
TheStacksDecatorSaleonlyfeaturedonecoin
tonedexceptforabrightareaontheobversedidnotsell.
ofinterest,an1845-OdimeinAU55. Thiscoinwasvery
TheBaltimoreSaleCataloguefeaturedan1844-
wellstruckforthedatebutdippedandhadanumberof
OhalfdimeinXF45andcleanedfor$575. Acleaned
marksontheobverseanddidnotsell.
1846halfdimeinXF45soldfor$2,070andaverywell
2008 Volume 4,Issue 9 (September 2008) Page 3
Question of the Month
Topicsfore-DiscussionbyPaulKluth
ShouldthisCoinbeLightlyCleanedorDipped?
Shown aboveisan 1847 LibertySeated Quarter (in theVFconditionrange)withrather
dark,unattractive toning. Thisparticular coin also hastheever-popular and scarceDou-
bleDieReverse. Doubling isveryprominent atQUALDOL and UNITED. Thisvariety
doesnot appear tohavetherepunched 1847/47dateontheobverseor atleastyoucan’t
seeitwiththedarktoning.
Attributionfor this varietyisBriggs1-A,Breen3970, and Cherrypicker’s FS-25-1847-801
(butwithout therepunched date). In therecent LSCCconsensusfor Seated Quarters,
only 7specimensof thisparticular variety werereported and only4reversedouble dies
werereported with the1847/47date obverse.
So,whatshould one do? Should thiscoin bedipped,lightlycleaned,or professionally
conserved toimproveeye appealand possiblemarketvalue? Or should this coinbeleft
aloneas itis?
Giveusyour thoughtsand let’stakeavote! Allresponses are welcome! Pleasereply
withyour opinion to theE-GobrechtEditor [email protected].
Page4 The E-Gobrecht
Hits on The E-Gobrechton Gerry Fortin’s website
Last monthoutof curiosity,I(theEditor) queried GerryFortin ifhe had amethod of deter-
mining the number ofhits theissues ofTheE-Gobrechtweregetting onhiswebsite. He
provided lotsofinformation and thenarrativebelow.
“Attachedis atable(I convertedit intoalinegraph, Editor)whichshows the E-Gobrechtpagehits
(atwww.seateddimevarieties.com/LSCC) fortheJanuary2005throughJuly2008timeframe. Mywebsite
hostingcompanyprovides aweeklyupdateonavarietyofwebsitestatistics whichallows metotunecon-
tent forimprovedreadership. This featureis checkedweeklyandthepopularityoftheE-Gobrecht back
issues is obvious from thestatistics.
TheE-Gobrecht archive links wereactivewithreaders duringthelast 12 months. Most notableis
thesubstantial increaseinhits fortheSeptember 2007issuewhen youconvertedtheE-Gobrechtto the
newspaperformat. The Septemberissuehasseen 742hits inthepast 12months.The earlierconversionof
theE-GobrechttoPDFformat inApril 2007didnot haveanobvious impact. Thoughthereaders didnot
(seemtobe) excitedabout thefiletype format change, Iwas elated as PDFfiles areso mucheasytohandle
thanWordfiles withinternal images.
Issuetoissue,membercontent isanimportant factordrivingpagehits and Iwill leavetheanalysis
ofcontent types vs. page hits as anexercisefor yourfreetime.
Iwas surprisedtoseethat theE-Gobrechtarchives donot containlinks forthe October, November
andDecember2007back issues. (Editor, therewerenoissues then)…”
Withabout400E-Gobrechtsubscribers,I’mdelighted tosee manymorepeopleaccess
the archived copies! Editor
900 E-Gobrecht Internet accesses ma gazine style pag e form at intro duc ed
New
800
700
s
it 600 2005
h
f
o 500 2006
r
e
400 2007
b
m
u 300 2008
N
200
100
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
Noissue
2008 Volume 4,Issue 9 (September 2008) Page 5
Seated Dime Web-Book Updates and Other Ramblings
byGerryFortin
“Howtimeflies” is thebestapproach Fortinvarietyreferenceset canbeeasily
todescribe mysurprisethat ayear has accessed atonewebsitelink. Mainte-
passed sincelastsubmitting a web-book nance ofthepictorialimagedatabaseis
updateto theE-Gobrecht. Recentcorre- straightforward as internalweb-bookim-
spondencewithBill Bugerton how todeter- ageimprovements areautomatically
mine thenumber of“hits” totheE-Gobrecht linked tothePictorialmodule.
backissuearchives attheLibertySeated
Collector Club link
IfE-Gobrechtreadershave notalreadyvis-
(http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/LSCC
ited theSeated Dime DatePictorials,you
.htm)allowed for aquick check on thelast
can access via thislink;
web-book update. Theanswer was asur-
http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/pic
prising September 2007. Tocatchevery-
torial/reg_index.htm.
one up onthe websitechanges,hereisa
quicksummary;
Ihavetobehonestthat the openregistry
modulereceived minimal attentioninthe
Probablythemostimportantwebsitesite
lastsixmonths.Thoughthere was ade-
improvementistheSeated DimeDate
sireto completethe Seated Liberty
Pictorial link and accesstoall knownva-
quarter section, no workoccurred with
rieties for eachdate and mintmarkin the
the only attentionpaid toprocessing
Seated dime series. Wheredid theidea
Seated Dimeregistry updates. Starting
for thisfeaturecome from? Ontheweb-
inAugust,Ifound myselfwith more time
site’smessageboard,Iwould occasion-
onhand and firstgaveseriousattention
allypost acompletelistof varieties
togrowing theSeated dimeregistrycon-
withinfavoritedates and supportthelist-
tent. Thesecond projectistodefinethe
ing with obverse and reverseimages
basicand withvarietiesbusinessstrike
fromthe membership based web-book
sets for Seated Libertyquarters. If all
content. Fellowcollectorsexpressed
goestoplan,I hope tohavethosesets
interestintheposts, permitting themto
readybyend ofSeptember. Several
viewa fullimage catalogue ofvarieties
LSCCmemberswereapproached to
“withinadate”. Sincetherewaspositive
provideindividualdateand mintmark
response to the concept,itwasdecided
rarityratingsconsistent withSeated
tobuild apictorial moduleincluding all
dimeand Seated half-dollar approaches.
Seated dimedates and mintmarksand
have openpublic access. Oncethe
moduledevelopment started,Ireceived
Speaking ofgrowing the number ofSeated
asuggestiontoadd theDenticleRuler
dimesetsin theopenregistry,I ap-
tableasaheader to eachdate’spictorial
proached a certainindividualwhohas
page.Thesuggestionwasdeemed tobe
assembled thefinest setofSeated dimes
agood ideawhich allowed casualread-
inmy humbleopinion. Thatsetislisted
ersto enjoya moderatelyusablevariety
atoneoftheTPGregistries and would
attribution tool.The entirepictorialmod-
alsobethe highlight oftheSeated dime
uleis also selfrewarding asthe entire
(Continuedonpage6)
Page 6 The E-Gobrecht
dinner aritualduring futureshows where
(Continuedfrompage5)
anLSCCmember meeting is held.
openregistry. Theindividualwasposi-
tive about theideaand Iam happytore-
Thereweresome memorable mo-
portthatthe“EHG” collectionispres-
mentsonthebourse floor. Nomajor show
entlyavailable for viewing atthevarious
would becompletewithout avisitwithLiz,
Seated dime set links. Onehasto mar-
Gailand Mike at JJTeaparty. Lizwasex-
velatthedepthofthecoinsin theCar-
cited toseemeasshehad two“unlisted”
sonCityand NewOrleans subsetswith
Seated dime varietiesfor my confirmation.
setratingsand weighed gradesatthe
Onecan trustLiz’seyesand memorytoset
mint statelevel. The “EHGCarsonCity
asideSeated dimes thatlook atypical. In-
Collection”
deed the twodimes wereunlisted inthe
(http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/re
web-book, much toLiz’senjoyment. Ikept
gistry/cc_index.htm) obtained asetrat-
hearing fromother seated collectorsof
ing of62.2 whilethe “EHGNewOrleans
Liz’s excitementover finding two unlisted
Collection”
varieties. For thoseinterested,thetwo
(http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/re
dimeswerean1857-Owith alargebold
gistry/o_index.htm)delivered a weighed
mark minted reverse thatisunknownand
gradeof65.2! When aset is100% com-
an1876-CCbold struckdime withpimpled
plete, the setrating and weighed grades
dierustthrough obverseand reverse. The
areequivalent. Asimpressive arethe
TypeIreverse mintmarkpositionis newto
entire“EHGVarietiesCollection” and
me. Both coinswere purchased and are to
theSanFrancisco subset. Congratula-
beadded tothe web-bookin the October
tionstoEHG for setting thegenerational
timeframe. I should also mentionthat avisit
benchmark for LibertySeated Dimeset
toDickOsburn’stabledid producean
building.
unlisted 1877-CCTypeIreversedime
graded PCGS MS64withstrictlyoriginal
Other Ramblings toning.
Idowish toprovide afew heartfelt
comments about the BaltimoreANA show
Finally,sincetheANA waslocated in
sincenotattending a major showsinceNo-
Baltimore, thiswas anopportunitytoinvite
vember 2006. Seeing old friendsat the
myson,Matt,wholivesand worksinAnna-
LSCCmeeting and onthebourse floor was
polis,to theconventionand tothe LSCC
bestdescribed as“medicinefor thesoul”
meeting toseehis father received theKa-
for apersonnothaving faceto faceconnec-
malAward ward. He wasmost impressed
tionswithfellow seated coinageenthusiast.
with the friendship and camaraderie exhib-
Iwas abletofinally meetJasonFeldman in
ited among LSCCmembers. In future
personand wecollectivelyviewed a num-
years, Idohope that Mattwillbecomeinter-
ber ofseated dimesthroughtheshow. Ja-
ested in thecurator rolefor theSeated
sonalsoprovided meseveralunlisted varie-
Dimeweb-book..
tiesfor further reviewand inclusioninthe
web-book. Thepost LSCCmeeting dinner
attheM&S Grill on theharbor waterfront Asalways,HappyHunting….
canbe characterized asablast withgreat
companyand food. Weagreed to makethe
2008 Volume 4,Issue 9 (September 2008) Page 7
Jason Feldman shares another interesting
seated dime variety
Iwanted tocomment onwhatan
enjoyableexperiencethisyearsANA
was. Itwasgreat to havedinner with
somany membersand exchange
coin storiesand expertise. For many
ofus,there areso fewpeoplewho
areknowledgeableenough toshow
coinsto and get meaningful opinions.
A fewofus had alatenightround ta-
blewhichwasmost enjoyable.
Sometimesthebest adviceis the
hardest togive. After that event,I
found ithard to find even asingle
dimetobuy! Iamhoping todoit
againsoon.
For thismonthI haveadded a
1875Dimewithsomeneatrim cuds. I
justpurchased aSLR cameraand
amgetting somegreatimages.
Nominations for 2009 Hall of Fame
Afterthis year’s memorableceremonywhereJohnMcCloskeyandKam Ahwash werethefirst tobe
inductedintothe LSCC’s Hall ofFame,theHall ofFame committeeis pleasedtoannouncethat it is ac-
ceptingnominations forthe LibertySeatedCollectorClub’s 2009Hall ofFame. Eligiblenominees include
clubmembers whohave madesignificant contributions toexpandingtheliteratureonSeated coinage,who
havebuilt animportant collectionof LibertySeatedcoinage,or whohaveservedinaleadershipposition
whilecontributingtothe success of LSCC. Please send yournominations totheHall ofFameCommittee
Chairman,Jim Gray,[email protected]’s nameandashort narrativeon
whyyou feel this individual shouldreceivethis honor. Deadline for2009nominations is December 31,
2008.
Page 8 The E-Gobrecht
Update on the
eBay 1873-S No-Arrows half dollar
Asreported inlast month’sissue,an At first, Iwas intrigued, as it certainlyhas an "S"
eBayseller listed an 1873-S No-Arrowshalf mintmarkand thereis no traceofarrows. However, I
dollar withan opening bidrequirementof decidedtocheckthedate......and.........it was an
$500,000. He mentioned hewould haveit at 1876!
theANA. IspokewithJohnDannreuther
(JD) about this and weattempted tostudy Bill Fivaz was therewhile Iwas lookingat it,and he
the coinbutwastold itwas outwithhispho- checkedit also andagreed.
tographer withnoanticipated returndate.
After theANA, JDemailed meand Ohwell,maybesomeday!
said hewasable toseethe coin and ...
Best,
“Goodtosee you at theANA.
JD”
Igot toseePaul's "1873-S NoArrows"halfdollar
(don't know whether you got toseeornot,as Idid
Soendsthis! TheEditor.
not see youafter Isawit).
Question on an 1853 WA Half Dime
JimBowlingsentin photo,Ihopeyoudonotmind.” I,theEditor,Ifor-
questionandthean- wardedthisquestiontohalfdimeexpertSteveCrain
swerisworthsharing andhereplied:
witheveryone. “I
havean1853Liberty “Theubiquitous1853WithArrowshalfdimehas
SeatedHalfDimeWA causedmorethanafewcollectorsandstudentsofthe
thatIthoughtwasa seriestothrowuptheirhandsindespairwhentryingto
Valentine4abutupon attributeanindividualexample.However,itisthe
closerlookingthedie availableliterature,andnotthecollector,whoisto
crackdoesnotgo blameforthisinabilitytoattributethecoinsinourcol-
throughthethreebut lections.Essentially,wehavejusttworeferenceswith
fromtherimthrough whichtoreferwhenattemptingtoattributeLiberty
therightarrowhead Seatedhalfdimes;“TheUnitedStatesHalfDimes”,
anddisappearsinto Dr.DanielW.Valentine;1931,AmericanNumismatic
Liberty'sfoot.Imay Society,NewYork;and“TheCompleteGuidetoLib-
haveaskedthewrong ertySeatedHalfDimes”,AlBlythe;1992,DLRC
personandifsoIapologize,butIwouldliketoprop- Press,VirginiaBeach,VA.Theformerattemptstolist
erlyattributethiscoinandD.W.Valentine'sbookisthe everydiemarriageknowntotheauthoratthetimehe
onlyone Ihave.Booksarebecominghardtocomeby published,butisplaguedwithvaguenessandambigu-
andextremelyexpensive. Ifyoucouldhelporknow ityintheverbaldescriptions,thephotographicplates
whocouldIwouldappreciateit.Ihaveattacheda
(Continuedonpage9)
2008 Volume 4,Issue 9 (September 2008) Page 9
lectivelyavoidedin-depthstudiesofthisdate.
(Continuedfrompage8)
aretoosmall,andtheauthoroftenconfuseddiestates IfwelookatthephotographofMr.Bowling’shalf
withdiemarriages.Thelatterpresentssignificantly dime,andcompareitwiththeverbaldescriptionsfrom
betterphotographicplates,butgenerallyonlyone for theValentinereference,weareimmediatelyandlogi-
eachdateratherthanoneforeachdiemarriage.Itis,by callydrawntotheV4adescriptionoftheobverse,
theauthor’sownadmission,notacomprehensiveency- whichstates:“DieofNo.4,butdiecrackrunsfrom3
clopediaofallknowndiemarriagesfortheseries,but througharrowtobase”.However,Mr.Bowling’scoin
ratherageneraloverviewoftheseries.Todate,thereis doesnotappeartomatchthisdescription,asthedie
noonecomprehensivesourceforcollectorstouseto crackrunsfromtherim,throughtherightarrow,but
identifythe LibertySeatedhalfdimesintheircollec- completelymissingthe3,andintothebase.
tions.
IfwecompareMr.Bowling’simagewiththeValen-
DuringthetenureoftheLibertySeateddesign,the tinephotographicplates(Iusephotographicenlarge-
Mintperfectedandintroducedthehubbingprocess, mentsmadefromanoriginal1931ValentineNNM
wherebyalloftheelementsoftheobverseandreverse #48),wecanseethatthediecrackdoesnotappearto
dieswerepartofthehub,withtheexceptionofthedate match(Unfortunately,Dr. Valentine’s1853W/AV4
fortheobverse,andthemintmarkonthereversefor musthavebeenoneofhisleastattractivecoins,as
thebranchmintcoins.Thismeantthat,exceptformi- thereisaconsiderableamountof‘schmutz’aroundthe
nordifferencesinplacementofthedatenumeralsand devices,makingpositiveidentificationdifficult).On
mintmarks,allproductiondieswereessentiallyidenti- theBowlingcoin,thediecrackrunsslightlymorever-
cal.ThismayhavedelightedMintproductionperson- ticallyfromtherimtotherightarrow,anddoesnot
nel,butisthebaneofmodernday‘variety’collectors, comeclosetothe3.ButontheValentineV4plate
whoseentirehobbyrevolvesaroundtheverydistinc- coin,thediecrackrunsmorehorizontallytowardthe3,
tionbetweenthosedies. justmissingit.Therefore,Icannotcallitamatch.
Forthe1853WithArrowshalfdime,themintagewas WhenIcomparedMr.Bowling’scoinwithseveral
over13millionpieces,thehighestmintageforanyhalf examplesfrommyreferencecollection,Ifoundthree
dimeofanyyear,anddoublethatofthenextclosest differentobversedieswithdiecracksrunningnearthe
mintage.Asaresult,over150yearslater,theyareeve- 3inthedate.One,asyetunnumbereddiemarriage,
rywheretobefound,andvirtuallyignoredbymost col- exhibitsaretainedcudfromtherim@K4:30toK5:30,
lectors.Evennumismatistsandresearchersgivethem acrossthetoe,rightarrow,andlowerrightloopof3in
onlycasualattention.WalterBreengivesjustonenum- date,butagainthisdoesnotseemtomatchtheBowl-
ber()forall1853W/Ahalfdimes.Valentinelisted ingimage.Theothersinvolvediecracksconnecting
eleven(11)diemarriagesforthe1853W/Adate,but withthe3inthedate.
mostoftheseseemtosharetheV4dies,ordieswhich
are“similartoNo.4”,or“almostidenticaltoNo.4”,or IamafraidthatMr.Bowling’scoinisoneofthoseall-
someotherambiguousdescription.Alloftheseare too-frequentlyseenexampleswhichcannotbedirectly
platedintheValentinereference,butthepresumeddif- attributedtoanyofthepresentlyknownandpublished
ferencesaredifficulttodetect. diemarriagesintheseries.Itmaybealaterdiestateof
aknowndiemarriage,ormaybeacompletelynewdie
Mintrecordsforthe1853WithArrowshalfdimeindi- marriage.Thatcouldonlybedetermined(presumably)
catethatthedieshopprepared78obversediesand80 ifcompleteobverseandreverseimagesweresupplied,
reversedies,makingitatleastmathematicallypossible butevenwiththisadditionalinformation,wearelikely
(ifhighlyunlikely)thateveryobversediecouldhave tobefrustratedbythesheernumbersofpotentialdie
beenpairedwitheveryreversedie,givingusover6000 marriagesforthedate,onlyafractionofwhichare
possiblediemarriages!Forthoseofuswhohavestud- known.Thus,itislikelythattherewillforeverbe
iedtheseriesindepth,thisfigureseemsalmostplausi- manyunknown,unpublished,andunlisteddiemar-
ble.Nowonderresearchersandnumismatistshavecol- riagesforthe1853WithArrowshalfdime.”
Page 10 The E-Gobrecht
Subscriber Correspondence
From Michele Ahwash (Kam’s daughter): Bill,Thanks so muchforsendingthis (theAugust issueof the
E-Gobrecht. Editor)alongtome. Ireallyenjoyedattendingthemeeting. Hopetocomeagainsometime.
Best,Michele
From Gerry Fortin: What a great issue! Manythanks to youfortheongoing E-Gobrecht effort and the
recent awards. Ibelieve that the LSCCpresents itself as arolemodel forthenumismaticcommunity
throughthe efforts of yourself,Johnand Len. Themultipleawards areatestimonytothededicationofthe
LSCC officers toseated coinageresearchandpromotion.
From JimGray: Anyonewhoclaims tohave aunique1873-S halfdollar anddoesn’t rememberwherehe
got it is perpetratingafraud. It was hardtodeterminethat it was acoinmuchless oneworth$500,000.
From Len Augsburger: ForthenextE-Gobrecht...Ithought you'dliketoseethenewRobert Ball Hughes
websiteathttp://robertballhughes.googlepages.com/home. Thank you for theassistance you gave mewith
articles onBall Hughes andtheSeated Libertythat Iused at
http://robertballhughes.googlepages.com/1840quarterdollar. I'm still lookingformorereferenceinforma-
tionabout Ball Hughes if youknowofanythat Imissed. Thanks andenjoy! DavidE. Brown
Wanted:
Good stories or recollections
On
John McCloskey
From Len Augsburger: Wewill berunningabiographyofJohnMcCloskeyin afuture editionoftheGo-
brecht Journal. Iam collectingrelatedstories orrecollections ofthemembership,please email anyinput to
[email protected].