Another unattributed 1838 Small Stars Half Dime

In a Heritage session a couple days ago, there was an MS66 1838 half dime that caught my eye. Even on such a small coin, it is a naked eye variety: the Valentine-1, Small Stars die marriage. Even the earliest known state of the obverse die shows obvious evidence of die rust, most notably on Miss Liberty's left arm (holding the pole), by which the die can be identified uniquely. But being in an early state of the die, the stars are not yet significantly reduced in size. As such, PCGS does not designate it as Small Stars. But the holder insert of this coin specifically says "Lg Stars". Should that be considered a mistake?

I think that if any star size is specified for this obverse die, it should say Small Stars and a "die stage" as commonly used by specialists. That way, it is clear what the coin really is. Or it could at least say it is a V-1 (for the early and middle die stages) or V-2 (for the late stage(s), paired with a different reverse die). I think it would be better for the label to be silent about the stars than to say this is a large stars variety. (And when the TPGs do say Small Stars (or any other designation for any coin), they should get it right. I have seen a number of Small Stars designations that are incorrect.)

In any case, to my sensibilities the price on the coin in question was right, and I bought it. The obverse photo is below.

I will be at the Baltimore show, but I am not sure exactly when yet. A work meeting may cause me to shuffle my Thursday and Friday afternoon plans. Either way, I have my eyes on a few more half dimes...

Alan

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