More 1859 Obverse Bridge Dies

Good job. As Jim and you keep changing the Narrow 9 die count and, as I continue my work with 1858, 1859 W9/8, and specimen cents, I try to keep track of what might be out there.

If I assume your 99 obverse die count included the five narrow 9 crossover dies, I count 39 provincial obverse dies remaining to be found. (If the 99 does not include your five crossover dies, then 34 left to be found.) Having said that, The Royal Mint had 31 obverse dies left over at the end of 1859, so these may have been destroyed without ever striking a coin. If so, we may down to having to finding 8 obverse dies.

Reverses are a different matter. There are currently 62 known 1858 reverse dies and 15 known W9/8 dies. Jim has 221 narrow 9 reverse dies. The Mint sank 402 reverse dies. That leaves 104 unknown. At the end of 1859 the Mint had 42 reverse dies left over. If they were unused, then we are looking for 62 reverses. I suspect almost all of those are narrow 9 reverses.

My 77 reverses for 1858 and 1859 W9/8, make me hopeful that only one of those remains undiscovered. The Royal Mint sank seven batches, totaling 78 reverse dies up through November 3, 1858. If they sank only 1858 reverses in those seven batches, then that leaves one. Or thirteen if the next batch was 1858 also. Who really knows for sure? This hobby stopped surprising me a while ago.

Cheers,
Rob

Yay- this does not surprise me as there must be a lot more to find.
(go look in Bills lot as this is where this came from)
I know this is number 3 because of the triple G