Die trial overstrike

Started by brandm24, March 05, 2023, 12:09:49 PM

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brandm24

I thought this was an interesting overstrike of a Washington die trial on a merchant token of J.E. Bassett & Co. Though undated, it would have been from somewhere in the 1860s.

The dies for the Bassett piece were cut by Jarvis Ellis a house diesinker at Scoville in Waterbury, Ct. Jarvis was a prolific cutter during his 60 year employment at Scoville.

Interestingly, the George Washington die was made by Ludwig Christoph Lauer of Nuremberg, Germany. One would think that the Washington die was acquired by Scoville for striking tokens and tested on a Bassett piece as the Bassett tokens were struck at Scoville.

BruceBassett 1.jpgBassett 2.jpg 

Always Faithful

Figleaf

As the legend on the Washington side is in mirror image, it wasn't struck with a die, but with a master die (matrix), used to make working dies. The Lauers did buy and sell this sort of stuff, but usually within the family or to trusted people who worked for or had worked for the family.

I think Jarvis ordered the master die from Lauer and, on receipt, tried it out. Since the other side survived the striking well, while the doubling of the WA legend betrays that too much force was applied, I think Jarvis put one of his own dies in a press, together with the WA matrix, not taking into account that, unlike his own die, the master die was annealed and needed less force to make a good impression.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

brandm24

I'm not sure that the example of a Bassett token is the one that the Washington die is struck. It may be just an example to show  what one looks like. I'll have to look back and see if I can find out.

Bruce
Always Faithful