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1859 One Cent

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:51 pm
by Terry Mitchner
Can you tell what verity this is?

download/file.php?mode=view&id=436

Re: 1859 One Cent

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:23 pm
by Bill in Burl
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)

Re: 1859 One Cent

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:43 pm
by Terry Mitchner
Oh I thought it was just the "9" over strike etc. the verity was based on.

Re: 1859 One Cent

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:55 pm
by Bill in Burl
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.