My FUN cherrypick: Study of a 1867 5c sm/lg date

[IGWT]

I don't often start the same thread here and ATS, but I've looked for an example of this die variety for a long time, and want to share my find with everyone who might be interested. No, it's not the typically beautiful Shield Nickel. But forget about the spots on the obverse, and ignore the rotated reverse. Look at the date (close-up photos to follow).

 

 

The date is clearly repunched, and here's a close-up with some arrows added to point out the 1 and 7 of the underdate.

 

 

The date was initially thought to be triple punched, one extra punch wide east, and one extra punch wide west. Howard Spindel

later theorized and then showed convincingly with photographic overlays that the repunching is actually a small over a large date.

More particularly, the die was first dated with a logotype intended for Seated Dimes and then repunched with the correct logotype

intended for Shields. In fact, this variety is one of two pictured for the 1867 w/ rays subtype in QDB's book on Shield and Liberty

Head Nickels at p. 99 (Howard contributed the photos to the book). This die variety is catalogued as F-08 in Ed Fletcher's book

and as FS-002.1 in the fourth edition of the Cherrypickers' Guide.

 

It's a little hard to believe that the date on a Seated Dime is that much larger than the date on a Shield Nickel, especially in light of

the fact that the nickel is a larger coin. So, to make it easier to see, I proportionally sized pictures of a dime (17.9 mm diameter) and

a nickel (20.5 mm diameter) and juxtaposed them for comparison.

 

 

And here are the two pictures superimposed with the dates aligned as they appear on the variety.

 

 

And, finally, here's a close-up of the superimposed date next to a close-up of the date as it appears on the example that I found at FUN.

 

 

[cpm9ball]

That larger date definitely would not have fit. That's a great find, Lou. Good for you!

 

Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

Chris

[skippy]

Just to give credit where credit is due, it was JT Stanton who suggested to me that the original date might have been from a different denomination. I followed up by checking the possibilities and doing overlays. When the seated dime logotype matched exactly, it was clear that JT's suggestion was a good one.

 

There is one other die (an 1872) on which the same shield nickel over seated dime logotype occurred.

 

IGWT's example is a very nice one.

[Schatzy]

Thanks for the info!!

[TomB]

Pretty darn cool find and I agree with you that it is suprising that the date on a Seated dime would be so much larger than on a Shield nickel.

[James_OldeTowne]

Wow, I wouldn't have believed it without the photo-magic! Never would have guessed that the underdigits would have been from a seated dime logotype! Really cool post!

[johnny9434]

Thats a way cool find. congrats on that one, its a nice fit for any collection if ya want that