Posted 07/01/2018 6:57 pm
All 1800 Draped bust cents are rev of 1798. In mid 1798 the mint began experimenting with trying to create the entire rev die from a single hub. About half of the 1798, and all the 1799 and 1800 rev dies come from the same hub. They had to do too much hand refinishing work on the dies anyway (the press used for hubbing just wasn't powerful enough to raise the whole design consistently), so in 1801 they went back to using just a hub of the wreath and punching in the lettering by hand.
That's why 1800's are such a bear to attribute in low grade. Unless there is a recognizable failure in the dies or a distinctive placement of some feature on the obv it can be practically impossible to attribute. The best clue on the 1800 in the other thread is the unusually wide date. Other features that help on attributing 1800's are the shape and placement of the wreath stems and the positioning of the hair waves with respect to the E and R in LIBERTY and the point of the curl below the B. None of the letter positions are easily visible on the image in the other thread.
That's why 1800's are such a bear to attribute in low grade. Unless there is a recognizable failure in the dies or a distinctive placement of some feature on the obv it can be practically impossible to attribute. The best clue on the 1800 in the other thread is the unusually wide date. Other features that help on attributing 1800's are the shape and placement of the wreath stems and the positioning of the hair waves with respect to the E and R in LIBERTY and the point of the curl below the B. None of the letter positions are easily visible on the image in the other thread.
