The 1870 is a Valentine #5 and the following I found..... From additional observations on varieties in Valentine book.. Kamal M. Ahwash states the "1" in the date is repunched . Die clash showing between back of head to cap.die crack from top of cap through "of" to "A in America . Also through the word "states" to head compact ,med,placed date, and yes an V-5 Congrats on the find as it's a repunched date and a nice one at that.
The 1870 is definitely a repunched date. The 1856 looks more like MD. Longacre doubling would not be on the date. Longacre doubling comes for the creation of the dies and the date is punched in as part of a separate process. From the full images I can see significant die clashing. Valentine was the standard reference, published in 1931. For the pre-seated coins Federal US half dimes published around 1984(?) was much better. For the seated half dimes Al Blythe's book is better but not great. I haven't read Flynn's book. Yes they can be found. For example from 1931 to 1989 there was only one variety of 1873-S. Then I discovered the V-2 variety, and since then a third variety of 73-S has been found. And that is just for the one year and mint.
The Longacre doubling I was referring to is on "UNITED". I posted an up close shot of that. Is that Longacre or maybe die deterioration? I wasn't sure on either of the RPDs but paddy did identity the 56 as a known RPD.
That's what I said "not that the can't be found" as if we look at the 1919 Mercury dime ddo discovered last year.
I would appreciate if you took a look at the 1897 Morgan I purchased a few weeks back ,for some information on the company who slab it. Thanks in advance . Paddy You were Mia a few days and missed the cue from a few members .
I do. Copyright 1992. I was told that Al Blythe passed away about 9 years ago. I think it's a great book but to be honest, it's the only book I have on half dimes other than Breen.