IHC's - Do you know what day yours was struck?

[cpm9ball]

Probably not! However, there are a couple of articles in the latest Coin World that might help some lucky person identify their 1875 IHC as one that was struck on August 23.

 

According to the articles, an employee at the Philadelphia Mint was suspected of stealing coins, and a reverse die was intentionally marked and placed into service on the press where the suspected pilferer was working. He was caught "red" handed (pun intended!), and he resigned that day.

 

So, if any of you have an 1875 IHC with a small raised dot located on the top left of the "N" of "ONE", it quite likely was struck on August 23. By the way, if it is a high-grade specimen, it is also likely to be worth a "pretty penny"!

 

Chris

[EZ_E]

That is a fascinating story that reaches back and snatches a bit of time.

 

I'd love to see a pic of one. Anyone?

[cpm9ball]

See what I mean, Victor?

 

Chris

[jesbroken]

Very cool info, Chris. Thanks for sharing.

Jim

[physics-fan3.14]

I was wondering what that little teaser blip meant on the coin world front page. Cool story!

[WoodenJefferson]

See what I mean, Victor?

 

Chris

 

Hmmmmm.....I searched the net for about an hour yesterday and found no pictures of said IHC. Just because there are no responses does not indicate that there is no interest, ie; brick wall thread.

 

I vaguely remember this happening (reading it somewhere at one point in time) but can't remember the specifics. I remember seeing a raised dimple or dot on the reverse, very small but strategically placed so it would be readily noticeable and convincing.

 

But then again I may be dreaming...someone please produce an image and put my dreams to sleep.

 

Thank you

[PerryHall]

I'm skeptical that this raised pimple is anything more than your common ordinary run-of-the-mill die chip.

[BillJones]

I'm skeptical that the die would have lasted only one day. If the story is true, it would not make sense that the mint would have discarded the die after they caught the guy. Even in those days, coin dies were expensive, and the mint used them until they were worn out. In the 1870s the mint tended to push dies as evidenced by the fact even the Proof coins were made on less than perfect tools.

 

Still it's an interesting story. (thumbs u

[WoodenJefferson]

Link to 1875 IHC

 

No wonder there is no picture of this phantom coin available.

[cpm9ball]

Link to 1875 IHC

 

No wonder there is no picture of this phantom coin available.

 

A photo is shown in the latest issue of Coin World. Stack's supposedly has one in an upcoming auction although the article didn't specify which auction.

 

Chris

[Conder101]

Mintage that year was 13,528,000. Assuming roughly 300 working days a year that's around 45,000 cents per day. Cent dies were lasting for about 200,000 strikes so the die would have lasted about 4.5 days.

[cpm9ball]

Mintage that year was 13,528,000. Assuming roughly 300 working days a year that's around 45,000 cents per day. Cent dies were lasting for about 200,000 strikes so the die would have lasted about 4.5 days.

 

According to one of the articles, there were 99 reverse dies available for production in 1875, and 9 were carried over for production into 1876. Based on this, each die averaged 135,000-150,000 strikes with a useful life of 3.5 days. As stated in the article, it isn't clear if the marked die continued to be used for the rest of Monday, August 23 or, for that matter, the rest of its useful life. Therefore, the production estimate could have been 35,000-150,000 coins attributed to that die.

 

Since the coins were business strikes, there is no way of knowing just how many bearing this mark have survived. Shall we assume that the mark has very likely been worn away from circulated coins in poorer condition? How many, say, XF-MS coins still exist bearing this mark?

 

Regardless, whether that number may be 500 or 50,000, it is still an interesting piece of historical documentation of the Mint's attempt to catch a thief.

 

Chris