The Link Early American Silver Overton Variety Set of Lettered Edge Half Dollars

关于此套币: Long term effort since 1986 to develop a complete Overton die marriage variety set of Lettered Edge Capped Bust Half Dollars. Sheridan Downey introduced me to this charming and charismatic series in 1986 and he has helped me to obtain a great number of the key varieties in the set including the three crushed lettered edge proofs of 1833 to 1835, the 1825 O.118 R7+ finest known, and the 1827 O.149 R8 tied finest known. Lettered Edge Capped Bust Halves were struck between 1807 and 1836. Bust Halves were employed as silver bullion in banks in the early Federal period, especially since after 1803 silver dollars were not stuck again until 1836. This fortunately resulted in large numbers of these halves to survive and a result, despite its early Federal period origins, collectors of any means can collect date sets of the series. Since during this period each die was unique with lettered and numerals added by hand punch, each die can be discerned by small differences in lettering, numeral and star positions. A total of 453 die marriage pairings have been identified thus far. Fifty-eight die marriages are R4+ to R8 in rarity. Many of these marriages are very difficult to obtain in AU to MS grades. Seven die marriages are represented by five or less examples known. These seven marriages are somewhat analogous to Noncollectible Sheldon variety large cents. These seven major die marriage stoppers also include the three Crushed Lettered Edge Proof Halves from 1833 to 1835. To my current best knowledge, approximately 80% of the fifty-eight R4+ to R8 varieties are finest known or tied for finest known in the condition census and all but one are I believe in the top three of the condition census. Of course, new condition census examples of rare die marriage coins continue to be discovered, which can make the set a great source of cherry picking for "Bust Half Dollar Nuts".
Many terrific dealers have aided my quest including Sheridan Downey, Harry Laibstain, David Kahn, Brian Greer, David Finkelstein, Matt Kleinsteuber, Katy Duncan and last but not least, Laura Sperber. Todd Imhoff, Jim Halperin and Jim Jelinksi of Heritage Galleries have provided strong support and their auctions have provided many opportunities to obtain great coins, most recently from the Eric P. Newman/Colonel Green set. Thanks to Brian Kendrella, Greg Roberts and Kristine Karsdendt of Stacks Bowers Galleries who provided great assistance in evaluating the D. Brent Pogue Collection. Many collectors friends have provided sources of knowledge, experience and friendship and more directly some of some great coins for the set including Tim Osborne, Keith Davignon, Dick Graham, Howard Scharfman,David Rutherford, Jim Ross, Troy Nelson, Dale Heisler, Dale Friend, Glenn Peterson, Tom Sears and of course the beloved late Henry Hilgard.
The collection contains core portions of Date Set and Redbook Varieties from the John Clapp and Louis Eliasberg (approx. 20% of their set), the Phil Kaufman (approx. 30% of his set), Eric P. Newman (approx. 15% of his set) and D. Brent Pogue (approx. 25% of his set) Collections of Lettered Edge Capped Bust Half Dollars. The superstars from these historic sets include the Eliasberg finest known 1817/4, the Kaufman superb gem, finest known 1815/2 and the finest known, superb gem Pogue 1807 Large Stars Halves. Many condition census, very rare die marriages were contributed by the collections of Charlton Meyer, Keith Davignon, Tim Osborne, Gehring Prouty, David Kahn, Gerald Schertz and Russell J. Logan and many others. Thanks as well to Don Willis and the PCGS team for expertise in grading and verifying die marriages and die states for the entire set and their wonderful trueview photographs that breathe life into the set. Interestingly, when I saw Don Willis' Premium Collection, at that time the finest known PCGS Redbook set, I first became interested in the PCGS Registry. Feel free to email if you'd ever like to discuss Capped Bust Halves.