The 1905s straight serif DIAGNOSTICS: Part 1 of My Obsession
Updated: Sep 27
It is very challenging when you take up a new hobby and become obsessed with it.
An obsession that certainly begins with theories to prove and eventually leads to posing
numerous challenging questions. Questions that other participants in the hobby may not even be interested in, or may even think that you are crazy or maybe even cocky. That's how my numismatic journey began: I started dabbling in numismatics by purchasing my first slabbed coin almost 3 years ago. After years of obsessing over Japanese horological timepieces, mainly vintage Grand Seikos, I realized the habits you develop while obsessing over a hobby are all "transferable." The habits of reading everything about the hobby every night, trying to digest everything there is to read about Japanese timepieces and absorbing all those readings and small discussions; scrolling through eBay and Japanese auction postings to understand the nuances of the pieces, plus the most common, relevant, and most-asked information of all: the current market prices of each. I realized all this when I switched my interest to numismatics. I replaced books on horology with books on coins. eBay searches shifted from words like "Grand Seiko" to "Philippine coins" or "Philippine medals," and late-night conversations became all about numismatics and the results from the latest auctions at Stacks and Bowers and Heritage Auctions. It was very obvious that I was once again entering another black hole every collector experiences as he tries to understand the nuances of the hobby. The journey has been exciting, historical, and fascinating. So, please humor me with this blog as I humbly try to understand and express my love for the hobby by sharing a study I had made on one of the most underrated and unappreciated coins of the hobby, and, at the end of the day, gain some needed knowledge and equip myself to make the right decisions down the road, because God knows I’ve made some very bad purchase decisions at the beginning of my numismatic journey.
This journey started right after I purchased my very first 1905s curved serif. It was graded Ms62 by NGC. However, I was very much intrigued by its "variety counterpart," the 1905s straight serif (SS), also known by its reference code in the Lyman-Allen manual of varieties as Allen 16.06a. At first, when I heard the words "straight serif," I knew it had something to do with the font used on some part of the coin. In fact, that was all I knew at the time. I had read somewhere that the serif on the number "1" in the year "1905" had a straight top, unlike its curved-serif counterpart. Pretty simple, I thought. However, as I tried to identify straight-serif variants, I realized it wasn't as easy as it seemed. It was very difficult to identify different coins given their circulation and wear and tear. On top of the difficulties in properly identifying true straight serifs, I wanted to explore the possibilities of the "true value" of the coin, and how it compares to the King and Queen of peso coins, the 1906s and 1912. Thus began my two-phase obsession with the 1905s straight-serif One Peso USPI coin.
As I read and learned more about the 1905s SS, more specifically from the FB posts and comments of fellow collectors, I realized that the common question was always: "...is this a straight serif?" or "straight serif ba ito o hindi...?" That's when I realized identifying a proper SS wasn't as easy as it seemed, and I decided the first phase of my journey was to understand the difference between a natural straight serif and its curved counterpart. I needed to learn and properly identify diagnostics beyond the serif of the "1." In other words, I did not want to believe or accept the fact that the only acceptable diagnostic of an SS was the serif of the number "1," and I believed that there had to be other diagnostics to differentiate it from a 1905s curved serif. This had to be step 1 of my journey, and it was where the expensive part of my study came in. I had to buy the coins and photograph each one. I did not want to rely on pictures from the web or from the TPGs because, as we all know, web images are not reliable, no matter how high the resolution. However, because of a limited budget, we used a sample size of only 6 coins: 3 from each variant.
To ensure a proper and unbiased study of the coins, the following procedure was followed:
Six(6) coins were used as a sample size --Pictured above are the coins that were used in this test. Coins C1 through C3 are the straight-serif varieties, while C4 through C6 are the curved-serif samples. (Please note that this coding system will be used throughout the study. Please note that the only graded coins are C2-graded Au58+ by PCGS and C4-graded MS62 by NGC.
We identified the points of interest, from top to bottom, to determine the differences and properly differentiate between the two coins. We determined and discovered 9 points of interest, namely: (1) Head and eye area of the eagle, (2) Nostril or the "nares" area of the Eagle, (3) Beak area of the eagle, (4) The feather on the left foot of the eagle, (5) The top arrow on the right foot of the eagle, (6) The connection of the three arrows on the right foot of the eagle, (7) The serif on number "1" on the year, (8) the side of the number "1" going down and (9) the knob on the "9".
I took macro shots of the actual coin for each point of interest and created a visual comparison for each.
I used the identified "difference" from each point of interest and compared it to additional samples outside the sample list used.
I recorded the difference as discovered.
THE DIAGNOSTICS:
To start, the very first point of interest is the head area and eye. The eagle straight serif variety has a thicker head area. The thickness of its head makes it a little bit more "pronounced" than the head area of the eagle of the curved serif variety. In fact, it looks as if the SS variety's head has a lump on the forehead. Plus, if you look at the eagle's eye closely, the straight-serif eagle seems to be looking to the side, while the curved-serif eagle's eye looks straight ahead. A subtle difference if you use your imagination and look closely and long at the eyes of both eagles.
Moving down to the eagle's nostril, also called the "nares," we find the second point of interest. This is part of the eagle's head where one of the two nasal channels runs from the point where they bifurcate to the external opening. Please note that in the SS variety, the eagle's nares seem to go full circle.
In contrast, the nares of the eagle of the curved serif variety are "C" shaped and have what seems like a long tail at the end, as seen from the side of the eagle.
The next point of interest is the eagle's beak area. The beak area of the straight serif eagle has a smoother endpoint and is not as sharp as its curved-serif counterpart. Please refer to the red line traced below the eagle's beak area in the picture below. It can be seen that there is also hardly any gap in the area between the upper part of the beak and the bottom part, and it flows smoothly.
For the curved serif variety, the story is completely different. The endpoint of the eagle's beak is sharper, and a gap occurs between the upper and lower beak, forming an inverted letter "V". Please refer to the red line traced over the eagle's upper and lower beak.
After the beak area, the 4th point of interest is the feather on the eagle's left foot. For this particular point of interest, it would be easy to remember that for the straight serif variant, the feather is straight, going down the length of the eagle's leg as seen on the red line traced on the image below; while for the curved serif variety, the feather curves as depicted on the attached image below.
After the feather on the left foot, we go to the top arrow on the right of the eagle. For the straight serif variety, the arrow endpoint touches the feather at the top, while the curved serif variety tells a different story. All three samples have endpoints that do not touch the top feather. A small gap exists between the endpoint and the feather, as shown in the images below.
As you move down the arrows, the 6th point of interest is the intersection where all three arrows in the right-foot area meet or intersect with the shaft of the middle arrow. Please note the subtle difference: the straight-serif variety has all points intersecting the shaft, while the curved-serif variety has only the bottom arrow's endpoint intersecting the shaft of the middle arrow. The top arrow's right endpoint does not touch the middle arrow's shaft.
The seventh and eighth diagnostics relate to the "1" in the year. The most well-known diagnostic is the straight serif at the top, from which the coin variety gets its name; as you go down the shaft of the "1," you will notice a subtle difference, as traced by the red lines in the image below. For the straight serif variety, the sides of the shaft form a letter "J" on both sides, while for the curved serif variety, the sides form a different angle, as seen in the image below. Finally, for the ninth and final diagnostic, we noticed that the knobs on the number "9" had an obvious difference. The straight serif variety had a bigger knob that came very close to the bottom of the arc on the "9," as seen in the circled red image below, while the knob for the curved serif variety was smaller and farther from the bottom of the arc on the "9" (again seen in the image below).
I cannot help but think that the nine points of interest I identified may not be perfect, mainly because my sample size consisted of SS and CS from my small, simple collection. A collection that took me a while to acquire, given the scarcity of these two varieties. So the accuracy of my findings could be questioned. In other words, my main caveat is that this isn't a definite truth or something to take as a given, as more research is needed with a larger sample size. But I've tested my findings with other online images, especially as new coins are discovered and shared on FB. Plus, I've shared my findings with other, more senior collectors who seem to agree with some of my findings. I guess the challenge is for the reader to test these out on their own coins and see if we come up with the same findings. Try it... You may find it interesting.
YOUTUBE VIDEO: (recent premiere)
(As I finished recording these points of interest, I will now turn my obsession to the relative values of the 1905s straight serif. More specifically, I'll test the theory of its "undervaluation." However, I will leave that to phase 2 of my study. A continuation reserved for a new blog)
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