The Coastal Collection
1809 XXX Edge

Owner Comments:

O.102a, R1.

This variety is notable, and was collected for, its different edge lettering. For reasons we can only guess, four of 1809's 15 varieties have XXX characters stamped into the edge. Four other varieties used III inscriptions. (One variety, the O.108 shows both.) A good guess is that this was done to repair flawed die bars but no one really knows.

According to Ivan Leaman and Donald Gunnet's 1986 report, Edges and Die Sequences on Early Half Dollars, "Three of the 1809 edges bear ornamentation and are called the "experimental edges". The third edge exhibits heavy vertical grooves at the beginning of each bar in front of FIFTY and HALF. The fourth edge is called the "engrailed" edge. There is a series of X-like figures at the front of the first bar and at the end of the second. The sixth edge contains only 106. There are light grooves in the front of HALF. We call this the "pseudo-engrailed" edge."