Happy Holidays! I’m releasing for the first time a new bisecting die crack variety: 1864 L CRK-002.
This new variety is astounding as it virtually mirrors the already known bisecting crack 1864 L CRK-001. In fact, they share the same reverse die! The 1864 CRK-001 obverse die was replaced, but not the reverse die although it had a large crack on the reverse. More interesting is how quickly the new obverse die – 1864 CRK-002 – formed a bisecting die crack.
As an added bonus, I’m featuring for comparison here the latest known die state of 1864 L CRK-001 – also making its debut!
If you have more research, comments, or suggestions regarding these varieties… just click on the Review tab on each variety’s page, which are linked above.
I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season and a better new year!
With no further ado, here is a comparison of these amazing varieties.
-Russ
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- 1864 L CRK-001
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- 1864 L CRK-002
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- 1864 L CRK-001
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- 1864 L CRK-002
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- 1864 L CRK-001
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- 1864 L CRK-002
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- 1864 L CRK-001
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- 1864 L CRK-002
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- 1864 L Reverse of CRK-001
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- 1864 L Reverse of CRK-002
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- 1864 L Reverse of CRK-001
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- 1864 L Reverse of CRK-002
I find it interesting how many bisecting obv cracks exist for 1864–it must have been a bad year for die blank steel. There could be some really spectacular pieces showing total die failure.
DV – Indeed! I think what is also interesting is that these cracks occur on the bronze planchets, which were suppose to be easier on the dies than the copper-nickel planchets. Perhaps this was a time of experimentation with proper press pressure for the new bronze cents.
Yeah–experimentation with die setup/pressure for the thinner bronze planchets sounds really plausible.