I am over the moon to share with the JRCS community that as of January 20th, 2023, I finally completed my Capped Bust 'dime' die marriage collection. Why is 'dime' in quotes? Because these are not your normal John Reich (JR) dime die marriages. Rather these are Zack (Z) hand-made, die struck circulating contemporary counterfeit Bust dime die marriages. And to my knowledge I'm the first person to have ever completed such a collection.

There are only five (5) documented counterfeit Bust dime die marriages of this type. While this is not a lot of varieties, I can assure you that this task is exceptionally challenging as only 19 total examples have been photographically documented in my census.

My first attempt at acquiring an example, an 1833 Z1-A, came in November 2012 but I was outbid and thus did not win it. Nevertheless, as a Bust dime and contemporary counterfeit collector I persevered. My first piece was 1834 Z1-C, a gift from the late Kirk Gorman. This was followed by a rather cruddy and since upgraded fantasy-dated 1838 Z1-D. I then acquired a collection which had 2 other varieties, 1831 Z1-A and 1833 Z1-B (still unique). Finally, earlier this year I was able to acquire the fifth and final variety, an 1833 Z1-A which, and rather amusingly, was the first variety I tried to buy; only 3 examples of this variety have been documented and one of those (the finest) is in the ANS collection. A collage of my collection is included here.

If you have a die struck circulating contemporary counterfeit Bust dime example that I have not documented, or frankly any other die struck circulating contemporary counterfeit U.S. coin, I'd like to hear from you so that I may add your pieces to my growing photographic census and associated documentation for my BAD METAL publications.

For more information about the John Reich Collectors Society, see:
https://www.jrcs.org/

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: BAD METAL: SILVER 3 TO 25 CENTS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n32a06.html)