Hey Jbuck! Sure, I got some information from this thread:
https://ikegroup.info/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=1723Here's one part of the conversation that sums it up nicely:
Quote:
Dang! You guys are on top of things!
For me, it's fascinating to look at the photo in V2 (Chapter 8, Page 1) that shows the smooth spread of fade in the peg leg on the 71-S proof, an unanticipated consequence of the low relief of the original flared peg leg design (and it is flared, check it out). This was a major design flaw on Gasparro's part (he had promised "perfect" proofs in part to justify their $10 price).
The mint stopped production of the peg leg design after a couple of months, modified a master die by adding the hasty-looking "Funny Foot", creating the Design Variety most now call the "Serif-R" Variety though I much prefer the colorful and memorable "Funny Foot". The mintages of both are laid out in V2 but roughly 1/3 are Peg Legs and 2/3's are Funny Foot, hence no premium at present, except I'll pay a premium for heavily faded peg legs and for those that show no fade, each is around 5-10% of peg leg production.
At any rate, Gasparro was no dummy so his initial flat-flared peg leg design never appeared again. All subsequent design Peg Legs were more robust, fatter and in higher relief, starting with both 1972-S silver Ikes.
But now look at the 71-S SB (SB = Silver Business strike, specimen Ike, Blue Ike) FS-401 (Wiles' DDO-009) with its nicely doubled obverse Chapter 10 in V2), which Wiles nicknamed the "Fading peg leg". The "fade" appearance exactly mimicks the fade one sees mid-way in the spread of fade on the 71-S proof peg leg, hence my mud on the wall theory that Gasparo designed the 401 as a cover-up of his flawed 71-S proof peg leg design. If you have access to several 71-S SB peg leg Ikes, however, you will notice that almost half have a different peg leg design similar to that on a non-faded 71-S peg leg proof and this obverse is not doubled.
And you may remember that this non-fading 71-S SB peg leg Ike has two reverses, one nicely doubled, the other not.
All this can confuse even seriously deranged Ike nuts so I'm pushing for a new designation for the 71-S SB Design Peg Leg Ikes, one based on their in-common tapered left arms of Y and T of LIBERTY (a naked eye marker) and the naked eye reflective "trough" between the legs of the R. I like "Trough-R Variety, doubled obverse" and "Trough-R Variety not-doubled obverse" to capture both descriptively. Of course, of course, a catalog number will have to be assigned. . . Rob
) but I thought that usually you could see where the peg leg started to thin out & fade into the fields, while the funny foot sits on top of it, making it obvious that it was used to cover up the "peg".
Posted 12/03/2025 12:15 pm
