I recently had the opportunity to study a subset of a collection of counterfeit CBHs as part of filling in missing information before the next Bad Metal book goes to the printer. There is of course plenty of missing counterfeit CBH information associated with my research efforts. This is primarily due to my inability to study all the documented counterfeit CBH varieties (especially to XRF confirm alloy(s)), but also the condition of some of the varieties, and examples therein, did not preserve the types of details I would like to study and document, such as lettered edge die marriages. Nevertheless, progress is chipping away and data and information will be added to this research effort over time.
So, what did I discover from these counterfeit CBHs?
2 previously separate families are related, and therefore blended into 1 family based on a common lettered edge die marriage. Both family nicknames were essentially unpublished (I may have used 1 or both to describe examples I'm selling) - Lumpy and Hybrid. Both families had about 3 or 4 varieties each. But when combined, now just called the Lumpy family, there are 8 documented varieties, making it the 10th largest counterfeit CBH family based on quantity of die marriages known and number of obverse/reverse dies used. I also have a note that this family may grow in size based on outstanding hypotheses of other family and singleton connections.
I was able to create a new family called 'Provisional' based on a common lettered edge die marriage, but which I had already hypothesized were related based on obverse/reverse die characteristic similarities. This family is also called 'Provisional' because I think that it will someday be absorbed into another, larger family due to those similar obverse/reverse die characteristics - but I'm not yet 100% certain there is a connection between this family and other varieties at this time.
1833 Davignon 12-L is a singleton. However, my research found that this example was struck on a planchet with a lettered edge die marriage (LE.100-AAA) also known from the Clinton Head family, Buck-Toothed Eagle family, and the Pointed Wing family. Therefore, maybe this variety will join 1 of those 3 families or its obverse/reverse die characteristics will keep it as a singleton.
I documented 5 new lettered edge die marriages after studying about 40-50 counterfeit CBHs. This was a really great addition to the body of lettered edge die marriage knowledge and documentation. I will have an electronic, PDF publication of these lettered edge die marriages as a supplement to the next Bad Metal book, which will be available for download from this website - stay tuned for that announcement probably later this year.
All for now. I hope you enjoyed this shorter blog post about recent research updates. Have a great weekend.
-Winston
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