RWB

Chapman correspondence suggest more love of money than "love of the hobby." Much like Mehl and so many duplicitous persons selling/buying coins....Much the same approach as modern "shopping center" buyers.

No. They were not made by using existing US Mint dies and striking pieces at some later date. NO US Mint Dies were used for these medals, so the CANNOT be "Restrikes." They are little medals at large prices for the ignorant. Let's not further degrade numismatic terminology - stretch the truth, or outright lie. If people want to buy them, that's fine. But DO NOT call them something they are not. DO NOT try to mislead and deceive people.

A "restrike" must, by definition, be made from an original die, and struck at some later date. One cannot copy or imitate something and call it a "restrike." Where does the adulteration of terminology stop? Shall we have "Specimen Restrike Imitations" or other garbage? They are little rip-offs foisted on the ignorant.

Slimy imitations of stock designs often used when testing alloy and other coin changes by the US Mint. These are not restrikes of anything - they are little medals sold at outrageous prices to the unaware.

For some coins it would be desirable to state "mint set" or "mint set strike." Same for "Special Mint Set" and other coins that were made with some sort of special characteristic as noted by the US Mint. Unfortunately, the proliferation of meaningless and conflicting surface descriptions only make the pursuit of clarity more difficult.

I've notice a lot of drivel drizzling into this thread -- so here goes with the hot air drying machine. 1. Pre-1850 the overall approach of Congress and Treasury was to encourage gold coin circulation. This was intended to thwart state banks that issued low denomination paper. The goal was to stabilize the value of money throughout the country, and prevent the charter-fail-and-charter approach to speculative banking. National control of state banks was felt to be an infringement on the rights of states to regulate their commerce. 2. California gold discoveries provided a huge surplus of gold and merchants demanded large denomination coins (DE) and certified bars for export. This had the effect of reducing the production of small gold coin and further exacerbating the small paper issues of state banks. 3. The Civil War suspended all previous doctrine in both Union and rebelling states. Congress took control of paper currency from all sources by taxing state bank issues, thus driving out the defective paper currency. Gold moved from being a circulating medium to a backing medium; i.e., rather than gold circulating, a paper substitute circulated. 4. Return of specie payment focused on silver, and this affected the output of gold coin by limiting much of it to double eagles and bars. Silver became the normal circulating coinage and gold circulated in the form of paper "warehouse certificates." 5. Small gold coin circulated to a limited extent nationwide, but was concentrated on the west coast and Canada. Large gold was seen in the west, but almost never elsewhere. Coin change making machines that handled gold were sold largely west of the Mississippi river. Archival letters from small banks and individual document the difficulty many had in getting small gold coins from large banks. 6. WW-I further pushed nationwide use of paper notes. In 1917 Treasury had an active program of gold coin redemption along the west coast. US coins were accepted at face value even if badly worn, mutilated, damaged, etc. Replacement was made in gold notes and FR notes - both back by gold.

No competent authentication company will certify the OP's cent as a 1943 bronze cent. If the OP insists on spending the money for an examination, why not put the cash to use by donating it to the Red Cross or maybe a local food bank. There are a lot of people in need due to lost jobs, and the OP could help by a simple, tax-deductible gift.

...or "circulation strike." (ALL coins made at a mint are part of the mint's 'business.' The term "circulation strike" specifically identifies the purpose or type of manufacture: circulation; collector proof; etc.

A college friend became a Church of England priest, then crossed over to become a Roman Catholic priest. His wife was not pleased. Is that what the OP means....?

Unique errors, such as delamination and strike through, have limited followings and are generally tossed into non-repeatable errors. Little added value, and can greatly reduce value of a rare coin.

The slogan "Good for another term" must refer to the former Re-Publican Party - Blaine & Logan were never President/Vic-President.

...and the grand sweepstakes winner is ---- "brg5658" ! Here's the original estimate letter, which I just found.

A reliable source proffers these might have been for the 1884 Democratic presidential campaign, or possibly in advance of the New Orleans World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exhibition (opened Dec 1884).

We seldom realize that the Philadelphia Mint not only stuck coins and produced dies for the other mints, but was an active testing location for new technology. The first commercial use of electric lighting in Philadelphia was at Wanamaker’s Grand Depot in city center on December 25, 1878. These were carbon arc lights perfected by Philadelphian Charles F. Brush. Electric lights and motors were tested at the Mint in late 1881-1882. The letter below shows an inventory of electric lights in use in 1884. Arc lights were bright but blue-white and very harsh. Incandescent lights were warmer in color and equivalent to about a 40 watt modern tungsten filament lamp. There was limited commercial electric service, so the Mint had its own dynamo to generate electricity. For more information about electrification of Philadelphia City, see:: https://hiddencityphila.org/2012/06/from-a-corner-of-center-city-the-source-of-light

This letter states that Peter L. Krider [Philadelphia silversmith] had 71,225 medals struck by the Philadelphia Mint. Krider provided dies and planchets, and was charged $2 per 1,000 for striking the medals. Manufacture would have been between the end of June and the end of August 1884. Do any members know which medals are referred to in the letter?

If the coin was toned, then dipped in an acid solution such as Tarn-X and similar products, some of the silver sulfide (tarnish) would have been converted to the chloride, and some of the surface copper alloy would have been removed. These could easily increase the surface fineness to 0.900 or so. I really doubt any "coin shop" measurement that is 0.800 or 0.900 on the nose. A trained XRF user who understands instrument calibration and error profile can provide a reliable alloy, but not Joe Schmo in a coin shop of jewelry joint.

Sounds fishy to me....

Here are the NGC slides mentioned by Mr. Lange:

False. Likely made with a pair of transfer dies. Examine the lettering, digits.

Actually, it is agreed by historians that the digits we commonly use are largely of European origin and they are properly called "European digits." To stick the misnomer "Arabic" on them is incorrect and promotes misunderstanding of the digits forms used in most Arabic-speaking countries. As you suggest, there is and has been a lot of mixing as forms evolved over the past 5,000 years. (Even European digits have different forms depending on the parts of Europe involved. In the US the common printed form of " 4 " was changed to an open form (3rd from left) in 1953 for elementary school instruction.)

RE: "What effect will the Corona virus have on current and upcoming coin auctions?" The price of steamed shrimp will decline.

Is the date in European digits?

Couple of comments: The coin does not change when moved from one brand to another. A corn flake remains a corn flake even if it's in a Cheerios box. It's amazing how much money some put into "register sets" that does not involve the real value of the coins. This seems like a sunk cost, never to be recovered. if it's a hobby and it makes one happy, that's all that matters.

Great comment from ronnie stein! A hobby is what you make of it - and maybe what it helps make of you.

As technology changed, so did its effects on coinage. For example, after 1907 hubs were made by direct reduction on a Janvier reducing lathe. "Overdates" occurred when the same die was pressed into two different dated hubs, rather than some type of manual repunching.