1859 One Cent

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Terry Mitchner
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Location: Milo, Alberta

1859 One Cent

Post by Terry Mitchner » Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:51 pm

Can you tell what verity this is?

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Bill in Burl
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Location: Golden Horseshoe, ONT

Re: 1859 One Cent

Post by Bill in Burl » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:23 pm

It's a narrow 9 (normal, common) but, if you show the whole Obv & Rev, we may be able to tell you more (such as variety, etc)
Bill in Burl

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Terry Mitchner
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Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:58 am
Location: Milo, Alberta

Re: 1859 One Cent

Post by Terry Mitchner » Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:43 pm

Oh I thought it was just the "9" over strike etc. the verity was based on.
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Bill in Burl
Posts: 1457
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:41 am
Location: Golden Horseshoe, ONT

Re: 1859 One Cent

Post by Bill in Burl » Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:55 pm

It was called a "narrow 9", when the numismatic community (and Charlton) gave the DP#2 name to what was already called a "wide 9" ... the ill-named "wide 9" was one of the 13 different types (varieties) of the 1859/8, where they overpunched 1858 working dies with a fat, different font wide 9 on top of the already existing 8. The mint was late getting out the 1858's (a little over 1 million) and started to hand-punch the 9 over the 8's on the working dies left from 1858.

To further muddy the waters, and needed 8 million more coins to make up the requested 10 million order, the mint took the hub and ground off the last 8. Then they punched new working dies with 185 only on them. Then took the 185 working dies and handpunched the final 9 into each partially finished 3-digit working die. Since it took 2-4 whacks with the hammer and punch to fully impress the 9 into the die, that's why there are over 100 different 1859 Reverses. Between each blow with the hammer, they had to anneal(soften) the die and harden the punch, with the 2nd-4th blows being hours, days, weeks apart ... hence all the myriad of repunched 9 of every shape and offset. The 1859's are a collector's lifetime hunt for them all.
Bill in Burl

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