Crossover + Upgrade = Happiness

[coin928]

Crossovers can be risky, but sometimes it all works out well.

 

Some of you already know, but for those of you who haven't heard, I have taken over editing and publication of "U.S./Philippine Coins" originally written and published by Lyman Allen. The most recent edition of which was edited and published by Tom Culhane. Sadly, both of these knowledgeable men are no longer with us, and the responsibility for producing the 8th edition has passed to me. I hope everyone will be pleased with he results.

 

One of my major goals for the next edition is to provide good photographs for all of the cataloged Allen varieties. This has turned into a surprisingly time consuming task, but with help from fellow collectors, and the folks at NGC, I'm getting very close to a complete set.

 

While at the recent World's Fair of Money in Anaheim, I spent a significant amount of time at the NGC booth reviewing Allen varieties with David Lange. David and NGC have been extremely helpful and their contribution will be reflected in the book. I own quite a few of the Allen varieties and submitted ten of them at the show for photographing. I also submitted seven more for attribution, four of which were crossovers. The results of the crossovers are shown in the composite photo below.

 

The 1915-S/S Allen-2.13a is a bit of a special case. I first crossed it to an NGC holder in early 2013, but that variety had just received an Allen number in in the 7th edition published in 2012. Consequently, I didn't even look for the S/S before submitting it for crossover in 2013. I have an MS62BN, so I was attempting to sell this coin to a dealer at the 2015 ANA show in Chicago when I noticed that it was actually the S/S variety. Needless to say, I decided I should hang onto it. I had it verified in 2015, but didn't submit it for Variety Plus attribution until this year. It's taken a while, but I'm pretty pleased with the final result of this crossover.

 

I have some regrets about having the 1917/18 S crossed from the old style ANACS holder to NGC. The original label also included the word "PLATE," which was verification that it had appeared in the 6th and earlier editions of "U.S. Philippine Coins" as the example for the Allen-2.15c variety. It will however appear again in the 8th edition, so all is not lost.

 

Crossovers from ANACS can be risky since they are "cracked out" before they are seen by the graders. Fortunately, both received a nice upgrade, so I'm very pleased with the results.

 

Now, back to working on the book! You can follow my progress at http://www.uspicoin.com.

 

See more journals by coin928

[Walkerfan]

Looks like you did very well.

 

Congratulations!

 

Good luck finishing the book---it sounds great.

[CBC]

Congratulations on the crossovers and upgrades.

 

Does ANACS always slab these coins with the reverse side facing the front? That would be a real distraction for me if I decided to build a set and had coins from different grading services.

[coin928]

Thanks. It does appear that ANACS mounts the date side of U.S. Philippine coins towards the front of their holders. PCGS and NGC mount the figure side towards the front of their holders. There has been debate in the past as to which side of a U.S. Philippine coin should be considered the obverse. I wrote three posts on this topic in the past. The first two I wrote in 2011 to advocate for designating the date side as the obverse. The third one I wrote in 2014 after discovering government documents written in 1903 which officially designated the figure side of coin as the obverse.

 

Obverse or Reverse?

Obverse or Reverse? (take 2)

Time to Eat Crow

 

As the new editor of U.S./Philippine Coins, the 8th edition will officially designate the date side of these coins as the reverse and the figure side as the obverse. This is a major change from past editions, but it will align the book with the historical documents, the two major grading services, and the majority of the collector base.