1840-O自由女神半角 NGC MS 63
1840-O Liberty Seated Half Dime. Drapery. V-7. Small O, Large Letters Reverse. MS-63 (NGC).Offered is a high Condition Census example of the challenging 1840-O Drapery half dime. Deep, rich luster is overlaid with medium gray and magenta toning. Well struck on both sides. New obverse and reverse hubs were introduced for the Liberty Seated half dime in 1840. Design changes to the obverse include an extra fold of drapery at Libertys left elbow and the upright orientation of the shield. The new reverse hub is most easily recognized by the open buds inside the wreath above the letters H and F in HALF. The rarity of the 1840-O Drapery <em>as an issue</em> is well known among specialists, even well worn examples in Good to VG meriting a Rarity-5 rating from Blythe. The authors ranking for Mint State coins is an impressive Rarity-7, and the present example is CC#2 behind the Eugene H. Gardner specimen, certified MS-64 by PCGS as of this writing. An extraordinary condition rarity from a limited mintage of 240,000 coins that is eagerly awaiting inclusion in another specialized cabinet.<p>There are two die marriages known for the 1840-O Drapery, both of which share the same obverse. The Valentine-7 pairing, represented here, features large letters in the legend and is also identifiable by cracks through the left side of the letter U in UNITED and through the letter I in AMERICA. Discovered by W. Harmon (per Al Blythe), and unknown to Valentine, this appears to be the rarer of the two varieties. Given that some examples of the V-7 marriage exhibit a bold bisecting crack on the obverse, that die seems to have broken up early in this press run, thereby precluding a large mintage. An earlier die state, the Henry Collection specimen offered here exhibits no trace of this crack, although both sides exhibit evidence of die rust in the form of light roughness to the texture around the borders.<p>Q. David Bowers (2016) asserts that this variety was coined in December 1840 or early 1841. To maximize usage of scarce resources, the early New Orleans Mint often used dies as long as they were serviceable, which meant that some dated obverses were used in the following year.PCGS# 4327. NGC ID: 232X.Combined PCGS and NGC Population: 1; 1 finer (PCGS MS-64).From the Henry Collection of Liberty Seated Half Dimes. Earlier from Heritages Long Beach Signature Auction of February 2007, lot 2805; Heritages ANA Signature Auction of August 2007, lot 1607; our (Stacks) Rich Uhrich Collection sale, February 2008, lot 1449.
