A fellow collector and myself have been having an on-and-off discussion about how to properly designate an obverse die used to strike two counterfeit 3cS varieties.
The obverse die in question is dated 1858. It was paired with two different reverse dies, one of those is a hand-made die and the other a transfer die. This 1858 obverse die was originally created from the transfer die process. However, the die maker then enhanced the central star lines and some of the shield lines by hand-engraving those lines to presumably make them sharper. An image of this obverse die is shown for your convenience.
In order to resolve this debate, I am taking a poll from collectors who read this blog post. Should this obverse die be designated a ‘Transfer Die’ because that’s how the die was originally created? Or, should the obverse die be considered a ‘Hand-Made Die’ because the die maker went back and altered some of the transfer die details?
Please choose option 1 or 2 below to and email me your choice to Winston.s.zack@gmail.com. I will leave this poll up for a month (or so) and will respond with another blog post on the results of this poll.
1. Transfer Die.
2. Hand-Made Die.
I also like the enhanced transfer die designation. I prefer to collect cc's made from hand engraved dies. I would add this one to my collection, assuming I find one.
I also agree that the lettering appears to have been transferred while the central design elements were hand engraved into the die face. I would suspect an impact transfer as the mechanism because of the radial lines on the die and the very mushy lettering.
I like the transfer die enhanced approach.
I am of the opinion it is a transfer die enhanced?