It was an early morning Metal Detecting hunt in the year 2003 approximately. My former friend got an amazing signal just near the edge of an old one room schoolhouse. All that remained was a deep impression in the ground. Up pops an incredible 1851 Large cent that was later determined to be a genuine 1851/81 Variety coin?? It had amazing AU details. Here is an example from the PCGS website so you can see what it looks like. I didn't take Pics unfortunately. Also, here is its description if you wish to read. The 1851/81 Large Cent is more than an overdate, it is a normal date over an inverted date. When the engraver added the date to the die, he failed to notice that the date punch was inverted. Upon realizing his mistake, he oriented the punch correctly and restamped the date into the die. To efface the error, the engraver ground down the die, resulting in a weak undertype and myriad die lines on the lower and right obverse. The 1851/81 Large Cent is a very popular variety and one which can be detected quite easily, even on worn examples. Mint State examples of the 1851/81 Large Cent are scarce. Most are Brown and most fall into the MS-63 and MS-64 grade levels. No Brown examples are known above MS66. Red-Brown examples are very rare and full Red examples are exceedingly rare. Does Anyone currently own one of these? I'd love to see one that a CT member has! Please do post. Happy hunting all!!
Former friend? Oh, oh. There is a story there, isn't there? Thanks for the post, I have no large cents and didn't know how the 1851/81 came about, so learned something new. Thanks.
You couldn't mint an 1851 over an 1881 (except a restrike) as that would require a time machine. But I am sure there is a logical story, as I have seen this over date before. There seems to be a lot going on at the top of the last 1. Maybe this is 1851 over 1831?
I think the idea is that an 8 Punch was grabbed first the 8 was punched and it was noticed to be the wrong number.
