1899 high NINES

[lhnumis]

Below find images of a CANADA 1899 5 cent in the writer's collection with 'high nines'. Is this a new variety?
All thoughts welcome.

CANADA5CENTS1899OBV.jpg (55.12 KiB) Viewed 1142 times

CANADA5CENTS1899REV.jpg (56.08 KiB) Viewed 1142 times

CANADA5CENTS1899REV3.jpg (71.36 KiB) Viewed 1142 times

[Bill in Burl]

There is a "reported" one from a collector that has a single high 9, probably the last one. From the photo of that one, it looks like the first 9 is somewhat high, so maybe the 9's were always high as per norm, but one variety with the last 9 higher. As with much of the coinage, the used the same reverses from year to year and just ground off the matrix used to make the Reverse date, so it read "19.." and then they hand punched the individual last digit. There are many large cents that were done that way, so maybe the 5 cents as well ... handpunching the digit for the new mintage year. https://www.coinsandcanada.com/coins-pr ... -1858-1901