I have been working hard to complete a circulated small cent collection. This was the biggest purchase I ever made. Now I have all the key dates(1877, 1909-s indian, and svdb lincoln) and just have some semi-key indians to purchase. I believe this is the more common S-9 variety. It has terrific surfaces
Congrats on a great acquisition, a very rare coin from a very beautiful series! Nobody ever regrets going into coins like that. Enjoy her ;-)
Holy cow! That is very, very cool. I'll bet that put a dent in your wallet. Congrats!! Why did you go for a proof? Because of availability? Is it as rare as the biz strike? I know the values are pretty close until you get to the MS territory but I don't know about the survival numbers. How does it feel to own an unauthorized, illegally struck coin that technically could be seized by the gov't? LOL. It would make me smile every time I looked at it. Lance.
The proofs are typically cheaper, by a good bit, than the circ strikes, Ike. I'd imagine that's why. Excellent pick-up. Not every day something of that caliber pops up here.
I'm pretty sure PCGS now certifies ALL 1856 flying eagle cents as proofs, regardless of the die pair and regardless of whether they are really proofs or business strikes.
Interesting. I was going to say that I found the non-centered rims to be a bit unusual for a proof coin.
Thanks for the comments! There is a lot of debate as to whether or not any 1856 can be called "business strike". The S-3 die pair is traditionally considered "biz strike" while S-9 is considered "proof". The S-9 has a much higher population percentage overall, but is actually a bit tougher in circ grades than the S-3. The S-3 is much more valuable than the S-9 in higher MS grades, and slightly more in circ grades although the guides pretty much value them equally in the VF-XF range. PCGS used to distinguish between proof and business strike, but no longer does so, which really messes with pop numbers and trying to determine how many of each exist.(not to mention, even when they did distinguish between the 2, they often messed it up). So it's probably more reliable just to go by the variety as oposed to what the TPGs label as proof or business strike. Anyways, I may trade it in for a VF S-3 some day, but I am happy with this one for now. :smile And it did make a big dent in my wallet, but was still a great price when compared to Heritage sales.
Johnny, proof or biz, who cares? There are so few it really doesn't matter. The 1856 FE will always be special. I hear they're not making any more of them, 'cept perhaps for those Mint cops who just can't resist temptation. Screw Prez dollars without edge lettering. If I were an unscrupulous Mint grunt I'd pump out a few 1804 dollars and 1913 Liberty nickels. No one would even notice. Lance.
Wow, what an addition to your collection. This is the first one of these I've ever seen and given the rarity of it. I can only imagine how exciting it must be in owning it.
I've thought about this... how hard would it really be for a talented individual to fake a very accurate reproduction of a rare error coin, IE a 1983 copper cent? Make four or five, get a couple somewhat circulated by keeping 'em in your pocket a while, then dump 'em into circulation. Let one be found, then pull out your own MS RD example. You could probably do something similar with the '92 CAM right now.
Thank you all for your comments! It's definitely a wonder to behold, and going straight to the safety deposit box!
I have a 1856 contemporary counterfeit FE cent, the guy who passed it off back in the day probably made a killing I guess you could do an 1983 copper cent pass it off for a chunk of money
