This one made my day. This is supposedly a rare, two tails 9 Breen variety #3456. I don't have the Encyclopedia so I'd love if anyone here could verify. The end of the 9 definitely has doubling. Slight doubling in STATES as well. Cartwheeling luster on both sides. For U.S. coins this might just be my favorite designed coin, both obverse and reverse considered. I don't know how anybody in that time period could have went through it without being a collector.
Vess I don't know about the variety but she is one sweet looking Seated dime , I'd be excited even if it was the plain variety , being a rare variety just makes it even better , nice catch . rzage
A real beauty Vess. Page 321 in the Encyclopedia, "Breen 3456 Two Tails. Rare Knob and tail of extra 9 within lower part of 9" "Discovered by J.R. McCloskey, Gobrecht Journal 11/77, Pg.11" :thumb:
Yeah, I thought so too. There are some hidden diagnol scratches on Liberty's gown across the legs that kind of blend in with the design. I'm guessing that's what knocked it down. Thanks for looking that up Pennyguy. I'll add that info to my program. I didn't think the seller was lying but it's good to know from an independent source as well. It's obvious under the loupe.
Obviously polished, heavily scratched. Minor rim bump. Flyspecks and a fingerprint. Probably dipped and whizzed. Just kidding -- wanted to get a rise out of someone. That's a beautiful coin.
Cool coin. As an aside, it seems like one out of three seated dimes you see are dated 1891. I wonder why. Thanks for sharing your NEWP!
1891 was the highest mintage year and was the final year of this long series.. Philadelphia made 15,310,000. Plus there were 4,540,000 1891-Os and 3,196,116 1891-S's. More than double any previous years' highest total mintages. There were very few years where two branch mints were producing them the same calendar year. So it would stand to reason that since there were more produced and people knew it was the final year, it's likely more collectors and dealers saved them. Also likely that many more of them survived circulation or were pulled soon after,compared to previous years. They must have really stood out once the Barber dimes started circulating. From 1837 through 1874 there were only 8 years with a mintage over 2 million. Most were probably lost or worn out and melted down as these would have been a staple of commerce during a time when coinage was often in short supply. You see a lot of AG ones that look like somebody took a belt sander to them. Most of those would have been melted and are gone.
Better look again. There's no fingerprint on it!! I took the pics off the computer screen because it wouldn't let me copy them. I liked his pics better than the ones I would have taken. Notice how the ripples go off the coin into the grey area? They're lines from the computer screen that show up in video and photos.
