1900 newfoundland half dollar

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adam07
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:44 pm

1900 newfoundland half dollar

Post by adam07 » Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:45 pm

Can anyone tell me if the 1900 newfoundland half dollar is supposed to have the obverse and reverse aligned? I've been trying to figure this out for a while with no luck.

verdigris
Posts: 227
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:51 am

Re: 1900 newfoundland half dollar

Post by verdigris » Sat Jan 26, 2013 8:24 pm

This catalogue site claims it is Medal alignment ↑↑ : 50 Cents - Victoria - Numista

Cheers

adam07
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:44 pm

Re: 1900 newfoundland half dollar

Post by adam07 » Sun Jan 27, 2013 12:45 pm

Thank you for your response.

I have this coin with coin alignment.... does this mean it is a fake or do i have a rare coin? i am new to coin collecting and will seek some professional opinions, any suggestions on where to bring it? It's kind of strange how i got this coin, I ordered a set from a store on the internet that was supposed to contian the coins from 1904-1919 half dollars but instead of the 1907 i got a 1900.

verdigris
Posts: 227
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:51 am

Re: 1900 newfoundland half dollar

Post by verdigris » Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:14 pm

Reading what I can find around the intertubes, sounds like you're not the only one trying to find answers to this mystery. I.E.:
The coins of Newfoundland were not consistently one way or the other. The 1c coins, for instance, almost always have medal alignment, while the silvers normally have coin alignment.

According to my references, both the 1917C 50c and 1885 20c should have coin alignment. None of my catalogues mention any alignment varieties for the 1917C 50c. Judging just by that, you've got an "error".

However, I just went and checked my 1917C Newfoundland 50c coin, and it's medal-aligned, too. Occam's Razor says that my references are wrong (I'm using a 1983 edition Charleton catalogue!), rather than both of us just happening to have "mint errors"

As you can see I bolded the difficulties in getting to the bottom of this. BTW, I noticed a few NFLD 1900 50c up for bid on ebay at the moment. Perhaps ask some of these sellers what they have to establish the orientation of more examples of your coin.

I wish I could help you further, but I have only one NFLD 50c piece, a 1911; and for what it's worth, it's Medal alignment. About two weeks ago somebody was selling an almost complete collection of Newfies (!!!) - I'd never seen anything like that before and now in hindsight I should have copied all the photos.

Cheers

verdigris
Posts: 227
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:51 am

Re: 1900 newfoundland half dollar

Post by verdigris » Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:46 pm

.... does this mean it is a fake or do i have a rare coin? i am new to coin collecting ..

Sorry, missed that question. It means neither. I doubt very much anyone would bother creating fake NFLD .925 silver 50c coins; and if it is true that Newfoundland did not have a set-standard orientation of their coinage, it could be within the realm of possiblity that some NFLD coins were struck in both coin and medal alignment in any given year.

Cheers
Verdigris

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