I really do know, but I thought this might be a nice little chance to try out the attribution skills. The old thread with the information about classifying the obverses of 1798 has been bumped.
OK. The Reverse is definitely Reverse D. Therefore it HAS to be S-147 R5. That's what I call it. BUT, the Obverse just doesn't cry out Obverse 2 to me. The refinished hair and the position of 7 bug me. The refinished Obverse 2 actually ends under the I. This one appears to be under the upright of the B. The 7 on Obverse 2 looks higher to me than this one and more properly positioned than this one which appears to me to be rotated right of the standard positions and a bit lower. Of course, I also see something else that is much more common than once thought. Multiple strikes to the obverse most evident in the right field where bust drapery and at least two remnants of strikes from the hair, nose and neck are evident. The reverse just shows the edge dentils on the left side from the edge of the die. This is speculation on my part. Perhaps those coins exposed to acidic soil reveal otherwise hidden previous strikes just like the mild acids are used to reveal the dates on SLQ and Buffalos. The extra material from the raised portion of the prior strikes gets compressed to a greater degree at the time of the subsequent strike(s) than the field and is ever so slightly more dense.
Sounds good to me. But isn't metal virtually incompressible (so it cannot be more dense)? Isn't it the micro-crystalline structure of the metal that is revealed in acid dating?
That is probably a better description than compression. Whatever the reason, the effect may be the same.
I might be completely wrong, but here is my understanding of acid raising the date on a buffalo nickel: I was under the impression that the reason the acid ate away around the date and not on the date was because as the coin was pressed, the raised areas became a higher temp as the metal moved to fill the dies, essentially heat treating the date, making it harder than the area the metal moved from. Nice cent you have there too, Marshall.
I'm still wondering if anyone else see's the previous strikes. To me they are obvious. but to others, perhaps not. I also see what appears to be a couple of Ss in the right field which might mean a flip over multiple strike. The only problem there is that the Obverse S is not symmetric and the S on the reverse is.
Well for one thing I didn't realize you could enlarge the images. There might be a double strike there but the coin is so "beat up" that I can't be convinced for the images. I may show better in hand.
