Counterfeit flowing hair half dollar , nice !
A counterargument can be suggested that 1787 counterfeit halves were not commonly encountered enough to be referenced by Dr. Riddell in 1845, but regardless of their actual earliest date of being minted these 'Before Davignon' contemporary counterfeit half dollars continue to offer an interesting opportunity for study! Significant to their continued study is the important contribution made by John M. Kleeberg's reference to the catalog of the American Numismatic Society's collection of Flowing Hair and Draped Bust contemporary counterfeit half dollars in his 1998 book Circulating Counterfeits of America. As stated in Mr. Kleeberg's book:
"The Flowing Hair half dollars are clearly all by the same maker - the style is unmistakable, and if enough examples turn up, they will probably die chain with each other. So far, three obverse dies and two reverse dies have been identified:
Obverse die 1. Date 1787. 8 stars on the left, 6 stars on the right.
Obverse die 2. Date 1787(?). 8 stars on the left, 7 stars on the right. The point of the eighth star touches a denticle.
Obverse die 3. Date 1878. 7 stars on the left, 8 stars on the right.
Reverse die A. The dexter wing of the eagle protrudes only a little beyond the wreath. The left foot of the M in AMERICA is very close to a leaf.
Reverse die B. The dexter wing of the eagle protrudes much more beyond the wreath. The D in UNITED is distant from the E."
[Note - All the 1787 and 1878 Flowing Hair half dollar counterfeit varieties have been found from numismatic study to share the same edge collar and were minted from nearly identical billon type alloys. This further corroborates Kleeberg's (1998) article on such pieces being made before 1813 (when a contemporary letter was written about one of these pieces).]
Continuing in the spirit of identifying varieties as pioneered by Al C. Overton in his book United States Early Half Dollars Die Varieties 1794-1836 and the numismatic studies made by Dr. Riddell, Don Taxey, John Kleeberg plus others below are listed specimens of nine known contemporary counterfeit Flowing Hair Type and Draped Bust Type half dollar varieties. [Note - Additional cast counterfeits of Flowing Hair Type and Draped Bust Type half dollars are known to exist (e.g. there is a cast 1795 dated Flowing Hair Type known with remaining traces of silver wash and an edge comprised of indented dots that are roughly equally spaced instead of edge lettering). However this cast specimen and other similar known cast specimens are either too worn and / or too distorted with porosity from poor casting for an accurate identification to a genuine Overton variety origin to be made. It is hoped that higher grade discoveries of surviving specimens of cast contemporary counterfeits will provide sufficient detail to identify their genuine coin Overton origins to become vetted contemporary counterfeit varieties.]
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