 Editors Note: The following article appeared in the November 2007 issue of Rare Coin Market Report and is present courtesy of PCGS and the author. Do not reproduce without their permission. Part 1 indicated that the previous theories about Gobrecht dollars were correct in some assumptions but were also flawed in some ways. Each new generation of researchers, however, has moved the scholarship forward, although much more will be discovered about this complex series. Part 2 will put to bed several old wives’ tales. As discussed in Part 1, with the discovery of the removed name for the 1838 and 1839 Gobrecht dollars, the first tale came under suspicion (as to why the name was removed and not simply moved to another location on the die as had been believed – discussed later in this article in detail). The final blow to another tale (that the Name Below Base was the first Gobrecht dollar struck) came with the discovery of the removed name from the base of Judd 58, the celebrated “Name Below Base” issue! The Name Below Base Gobrecht could not have been struck first, as the name is effaced from its die, indicating it was made after the Name on Base. The die used for Judd 58 was either an undated, leftover Name on Base die with the name removed or more likely a die made from a working hub with the name scooped out. Either way, the Name Below Base, Judd 58 die was a later product, likely completed no earlier than 1837, but before 1859, of course! In December 1859, the Name Below Base first made the numismatic auction scene, as noted in Part 1. The working hub theory makes more sense, especially if the die was made later, as there was a working hub with the name removed used to make the 1838 and 1839 working dies. Another old wives’ tale to evaporate is the theory of a straight forward striking order for the various alignments. An examination of the tables at the end of this article reveals a complex emission sequence, unlike any previously proposed. There are alignment II and IV coins with the same die states as alignment I coins, as well as alignment I coins with later die states, like some alignment II and IV examples (the author was unable to confirm an alignment III coin for the original striking period, although they have been reported). There are also many in between alignments (labeled with “+” or “-” signs) that probably are just slightly different die settings for different striking periods. The “+” following an alignment indicates a counterclockwise rotation from the norm, while a “-” indicates a clockwise rotation. There are other alignment variations that exist, but are not listed in the tables, as it appears 1836 Gobrechts were struck in small batches on many occasions. Those in the tables are confirmed alignments and die states. Other than the name having been removed from three different Gobrecht dollars, the biggest find was a new alignment indicates a counterclockwise rotation from the norm, while a “-” indicates a clockwise rotation. There are other alignment variations that exist, but are not listed in the tables, as it appears 1836 Gobrechts were struck in small batches on many occasions. Those in the tables are confirmed alignments and die states. Other than the name having been removed from three different Gobrecht dollars, the biggest find was a new alignment. Previously, it was thought that alignment IV (medal turn, eagle flying level) was the final choice for Gobrecht 1838 and 1839 dollars. In reality, the final alignment is a new one – herein called alignment V (medal turn, eagle slightly rising). This subtle change from alignment IV was noted on the 1838 and 1839 Gobrecht dollars in the Smithsonian Institute. Previously, the Smithsonian coins had been reported to have the eagle flying level (IV), but both have the eagle with an obvious ascent. These totally original coins both have the Starless reverse die State a, with no hint of the die cracks seen on the later strikings. The pattern half dollars of 1838 also are found with this slightly ascending eagle (although one has a level eagle). Of course, Director Patterson wanted a natural eagle, so the correctly ascending eagle was chosen. The “onward and upward” eagle was lowered to a more naturalistic flight angle. There also has been debate about how Gobrecht dollars were pictured in old catalogs and publications. Often, some thought, the angles portrayed were probably not the actual ones found on the coins. Not all catalogers in the past pictured Gobrechts with idealized alignments. Wayte Raymond was a meticulous cataloger and in Morganthau’s September 1935 Harrie B. Price sale, Raymond correctly pictured both a Restrike 1838 and an Original 1839 Gobrecht. The coins depicted are from the original paste up for the catalog and are cutout photos of the obverse and reverse, so Raymond had to align each side by hand (in fact, both obverse photos tilt left). The rim markers from the original striking period have all been removed by the time the Starry reverse cracked; the only identifiers left are the dentil chips, the main one above the last A of AMERICA is strong on the early Restrikes, while the second, smaller chip in the adjoining dentils to the right is weak. Another dentil chip is found immediately below the right pellet. These dentil chips help define the striking order for Restrikes (they are recessed in the die and remain through several die polishing, each time losing detail). The Starry reverse die was refurbished for several restrikings. The first refurbishment removed the rim markers by using a lathe on the die’s lip. There may have been a small crack in the letters of DOLLAR during the original striking era that was effaced during the refurbishment of the die. The crack in OLLAR later reappears on Restrikes after the one through NITED STATES O(F) is rather prominent. These die cracks appear on the Restrikes in alignment III for the 1836 Name on Base and in alignment III and IV for the 1836 Name Below Base coins (Judd 58), as well as other Restrike combinations. The crack meanders through NITED STATES to the O, while still later ones have the crack through OLLAR and beyond. There is also a straight die crack from the upper wing pointed up and penetrating slightly down into the wing. In the last known die state of the Starry reverse, the cracks are reduced by extensive polishing, which also thins some of the lettering. Compare the crack in the top of the A of STATES in a previous state with the thinned A; the thinned A has little evidence of the crack and only a lump at the top of the letter, which is above the reduced crack. The rust/spalling pit between the feet of the A is still visible, but reduced in size. The uncracked Smithsonian examples of the 1838 and 1839 Gobrechts have been noted in the past as alignment IV, but have noticeably ascending eagles, as mentioned. The rarity of the 1838 in alignment V (the Smithsonian coin is only one currently identified) made identifying the Originals seem to be a fruitless endeavor. The exact same alignment on the Smithsonian’s 1839 Gobrecht clarifies the situation and satisfies Julian and Sholley’s rising eagle theory. The eagle is just not at the unnatural angle found on the first 1836 issues. The clues to the change to the slightly ascending eagle are found in several places. The first is the alignment of the 1838 pattern half dollars previously noted (Judd 73/79). The eagle on these patterns is found in a nearly horizontal position as determined by the pellets; the eagle flying level (or slightly upward, as seen on the Original 1838 and 1839 Gobrecht dollars) was adopted for all coins from 1838 onward. On the half dollar patterns, the eagle’s neck feathers are ruffled with the mouth open, another nod to the naturalistic eagle they were attempting to portray. Titian Ramsay Peale, selected by Director Patterson to render the eagle, was a naturalist of renown, as well as an accomplished artist. His work mainly consisted of drawings of all sorts of flora and fauna. In 1854 the eagle with a closed mouth, smooth neck feathers and in 1855 the eagle with an open mouth, ruffled neck feathers were used on cent patterns with the eagle slightly ascending. The closed mouth, smooth neck feather eagle was reintroduced for the Flying Eagle cent in 1856 that, of course, used a level eagle. The level eagle is also seen on the double eagle reverses by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Charles Barber (1907). The natural flying position for an eagle, a bird of prey, is either level or slightly ascending. We may never know the exact reasons for each striking alignment, but we have the coins as our evidence. All known 1838 and 1839 Gobrecht dollars are found with the eagle flying level (III or IV) or slightly upward (V). There are some later Restrikes (and a single Original alignment) that have the eagle actually flying slightly downward, the so-called diving eagle (alignment IV+) noted for some 1836 strikings. Another recent discovery adds more evidence to the intentional change to the eagle flying slightly ascending. The only confirmed example of Judd 61, a reeded edge example of the 1836 Name on Base issue (from the original pair of dies), was found to have a different place in the emission sequence. The J-61, an alignment V striking with the eagle slightly ascending, had previously been considered a Restrike, like the other alignment III and IV Restrikes. However, this coin is an earlier state (State h); this places its striking window likely sometime in 1838. If it was struck at this time, it apparently is a test striking of the reeded collar, which would be used on the 1838 and 1839 Original strikings. The Original 1838 and 1839 issues mostly are found with alignment V and reeded edges, although some of the Original 1839 issue may have alignment variations, including IV+, the diving eagle, as previously mentioned. 1839 Gobrechts seem to have been struck on several occasions for the Original striking period. Another feature of the 1839 is the use of the 6 from the 1836 logotype turned upside down and used for the 9. The tiny spine connecting the ball to the circle is identical on both issues. This 6 punch is also found on the Name Below Base 1836 Gobrechts, J-58. The very late state of the J-58 noted earlier has drastically lapped/polished obverse and reverse dies, which partially removes the die crack and, unintentionally part of the lettering! (see Die Markers) The thinned part of the lettering follows along the path of the die break. The rust/spalling seen at the bottom of the A of STATES is also reduced by the polishing (this lump appears in an earlier Restrike state). There also is a large, wide die line to the left of the A, produced during the aggressive polishing. There is little doubt that this particular J-58 and others from this late die state were struck much later than 1859 – the date the first Restrike J-58 coins were believed struck. Coin dealers of the 1870s reported restrikes of numerous issues appearing in the market. These late state Name Below Base coins probably are among them. It has been reported that all the old dies were destroyed by 1867, but we know this is not true, as the list of the two hundred plus hubs and dies destroyed in 1910 included some Gobrecht examples! We cannot just look at what was said by Mint officials, as the coin evidence sometimes tells a different story. Despite all the trials of various alignments for the flying eagle design, in the end all were rejected, even alignment V. The adopted reverse design for the Liberty Seated coinage is a modification of the Reich perched eagle introduced in 1807; the first appearance of the Gobrecht modified Reich eagle is the 1838 Liberty Seated No Drapery quarter. To add more fuel to the possible friction between Director Patterson and Gobrecht, sculptor Robert Ball Hughes was hired in 1840 to modify the Gobrecht Liberty Seated No Drapery motif into the With Drapery design, which Hughes accomplished by 1842. Gobrecht was appointed Chief Engraver in 1840, after William Kneass died. It appears the job was in title only, as the author can find no dies that appear to be of his hand after 1839 or 1840. As a famous engraver in the last years of his life (he died in 1844), Gobrecht was “put out to pasture” by the Mint, likely a culmination of the previous years’ entanglements. We may never know exactly why the flying eagle was rejected as the reverse design for the Liberty Seated series, but the removal of Gobrecht’s name from the base might offer a clue. The obliteration of the designer’s name in 1838 may have been the beginning of the estrangement between Patterson and Gobrecht previously noted, which culminated in the 1840 hiring of Hughes to modify the Liberty Seated design. It also sheds light on the reason all J-58 coins (Name Below Base) are found as Restrikes (either alignment III or IV with cracked reverse die). The story about the artist’s name being in too prominent position on the coin referred to the Name on Base issue, as previously asserted. The objection was not that his name was too prominent in the field below the base, but that his name was on the die at all! Gobrecht must have been hurt by the removal of his name and this may have been part of the decision to reject the flying eagle design. Others have proposed meddling by Washington bureaucrats as a probable cause of the rejection of the flying eagle. The complaint about the name on the coins was real (since the name was removed from the 1838 and 1839 issues), so it had to be about coins that existed. Since the Name on Base coins were the ones placed into circulation, logic tells us that these are the coins about which the complaint was lodged. Since it has been demonstrated that the Name Below Base is a later production, the story of the name being moved is just that – a story. This particular piece of fantasy first appeared in numismatic circles in December 1859. In 1860, Collector Matthew Stickney simply was repeating a story told to him by the then Mint Director James Ross Snowden. Snowden, of course, was the one who had just struck the “18 Original” Name Below Base coins. In a way, the story is true – the 18 coins Snowden struck in 1859 WERE the first ones struck. Although these later second-hand accounts of the name controversy have little or no truth in them, there is at least one contemporary report that had the facts correct. In the book Early Engineering Reminiscences (1815-1840) of George Escol Sellers (published by the Smithsonian in 1965), Sellers mentions Gobrecht, "had taken the inexcusable liberty of placing his name on the die, which became conspicuous on the coin, and the coinage had to be stopped until it could be obliterated." This contemporary account supersedes all the later accounts, as Sellers could not be clearer in his statement. The coinage was suspended and the name was removed before more coins were struck. It also appears that the name was removed from the hub (likely the working hub), as the incuse bases found on the 1838 and 1839 coins indicates that the name was “scooped” from the hub (the base would be bulged if the name had been removed from a die). The dies produced from this hub not only included the 1838 and 1839, but probably the Name Below Base die, as well. The Name Below Base die may have been a leftover, undated die, as the angle of the base is not as concave as seen on the 1838 and 1839 coins. All three of these issues have raised graver lines on the base indicating that the working dies were also tooled to further eliminate the signage. Each one has a slightly different appearance. George Escol Sellers was related to the Peale family, so he had inside information. Sellers was Charles Wilson Peale’s grandson and his uncle was Franklin Peale, who would become Chief Coiner in 1839. Charles’ son, Titian sketched and then prepared the model for the Gobrecht reverse. Sellers could not have been clearer in his statement. In the Eliasberg catalog (4/1997, Lot 2200), the veracity of this quote was questioned, but the name WAS obliterated in the dies, just as Sellers noted. George Sellers grandfather, Nathan Sellers, was the Sellers of Continental currency fame. Hall and Sellers were prominent paper makers and currency printers during the Revolutionary War. On page 77 in the book where the above Sellers’ quotation is found, there is another remark that may indicate why the sculptor Robert Ball Hughes was hired. The Contamin portrait lathe was installed in the Mint in March 1837, on which Sellers reminisces, “Although the die-sinking lathe was a labor-saving tool in the rougher portions of die sinking, it did not dispense with the final delicate hand finish, yet Mr. Charles (sic) Gobrecht, who was then die sinker, was much opposed to its use.” Of course, Sellers gets some of his facts wrong, as it’s Christian, not Charles and the lathe usually makes hubs or punches not dies, although it was capable of making a die by using a negative galvano. Sellers did not remember the facts exactly as they happened, but one cannot escape the fact that Hughes, a sculptor, was hired to redesign Gobrecht’s Liberty Seated coinage. Of course, we only have “smoking guns” as our evidence and may never know the politics behind the selection of the Reich-style perched eagle for the Liberty Seated motif and the hiring of Robert Ball Hughes to modify the designs. However, Occam’s razor should be applied to the Gobrecht dollars – the obvious solution is that the eagle slightly ascending was the preferred one and was adopted (all later US coins have the eagle slightly ascending or level, as noted). As can be seen by the two emission sequence charts, only the eagle flying slightly upward (alignment V) or level (alignment III and IV coins or slight variants) were struck from 1837 onward. It’s a natural! STARRY
REVERSE DIE STATES
State
a: Perfect, no chips,
die lines, or cracks State
b: Now with dentil chip above last A of AMERICA
(another, tiny one between the dentils to the right of the main chip) State
c: Same, now with die line from wing pointing to
AT, die line under D(OLLAR), rim marker on edge of the
rim above second T of STATES State
d: Same, now with rim marker above A of STATES;
dentil chip at right pellet State
e: Same,
now with second rim marker over the second T of STATES (rim marker at A stronger, marker on rim over T not visible on slabs) State
f: Same, now with rust/spawling on rim above last
A of AMERICA State
g: Same, now with rim marker under R of DOLLAR State
h: Same, now with rim marker between pellet and
U, die line through the O of ONE State
i: Now reworked with only dentil chips still
evident, above A strong, others weak; crack through NITED STATES O and through
the dentils from above the left of O(F) to the E of
AMERICA (at first it is light, later stages through STATES OF AME) and the
beginning of the crack at OLLA, and another crack from wing pointing to O(F),
this one later extending down into the wing State
j: Same, now with rust/spalling between the feet
of A of STATES, above O(NE), and above O(F) (appear at different times), dentil
chip above the last A of AMERICA now a thin line connecting dentils with the two
others virtually gone (all dentils now attenuated) State
k: Now heavily polished, dentils attenuated,
with the die crack reduced and the letters below the crack line very thinned by
the polishing, rust reduced, including between feet of A of STATES STARLESS
REVERSE DIE STATES
State
a: Perfect, no cracks, die line strong from
dentils above left side of T of UNITED slanting down toward right side State
b: Now
lightly cracked through ITE, but no die spur from
upper part of D of UNITED, strong die line above T of UNITED State
c: Now cracked through MERIC and NITED (first
stage has crack MERI and ITE only), die spur from upper part of D of UNITED,
die line above T still easily evident under magnification State
d: Same, now cracked through LAR and later into
field past R and to the left of L, die rust to left of face, die line above T
weak State
e: Same, now with void below F of OF, likely the result of foreign matter adhering to the
die, die line extremely weak above T of UNITED (some of the copper strikings seem to have earlier states of the die cracks,
indicating an earlier striking period, but this discrepancy was not solved by
the deadline for this issue) |