Back in Sept/Oct I hypothesized that it would take 2-3 months after Bad Metal Silver 3cS to 25c was published for a previously undocumented variety associated with those denominations to be discovered. Well, I was proven right. With enough people digesting the content of this book and reviewing their collections, a new variety was recently reported. That variety is a new 1902 Barber dime variety, and a counterfeit coin type which I fully expected to result in the reporting of a new variety due to the individual rarity of most of the varieties and the subtle die differences between the 1901s and 1902s. I also expect more counterfeit Barber dime varieties to be reported over time.
This new variety is known as Z9-L (new obverse shown here). It pairs a new obverse with a known reverse, and is associated with the so-called Black-Eyed family.
Now the eagle-eyed Bad Metal book readers may note that only 7 different obverse dies for 1902 Barber dimes were published, and that is correct! So why is the above variety attributed to obverse 9 and I've apparently skipped obverse 8? Well, that's because I made an attribution error in Bad Metal Silver - shame on me for making a mistake. Specifically, I need to bring your attention to 1902 Z2-L. This is actually not the same obverse as 1902 Z2-G, but instead is different; my excuse is that these obverse dies are quite similar in appearance with relatively subtle differences largely in regards to the layout and orientation of the denticles, and I just missed this. Thus, the published variety 1902 Z2-L needs to be corrected to 1902 Z8-L. Feel free to take out a marker and make that correction in your book.
Hope you're having a great weekend to the start of 2023.
Cheers,
Winston
