Even ugly, boring, non-silver and gold coins can be fun, boys and girls!

Pretty rare variety for you guys and gals to be on the lookout for. You don't need a "Cherrypickers Guide" to find some pretty incredible varieties! In this 1868 Shield Nickel, the "1" digit from the date was accidentally punched into the ball above. Values on this variety are about 4 times what a regular 1868 nickel would cost, so keep your eyes open and have fun!

 

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Great MPD

 

NICE catch.

 

What happened to the bottom serif in 'CENTS'? Grease filled die?

 

Also, does anyone care to explain how one would mis-punch a date like that? They dont even appear to be the same sized '1'?!?!

I hear about the MPD in the seated series quite a bit and I always think the same thing, HOW does the date get mis-placed?

 

There's also a reverse of the 1868 with the bottom of the C and the S in CENTS missing, as well as a more rare one with those two letters plus the top of the first S in STATES missing, for a total of 3 letters!
As for the reason for it, I will defer to @Paddy54 and others.

 

Nice one C-B-D I've been hunting this one for awhile. I believe I have one that is later die stage. Two Thumbs Up buddy.

 

Variety 1 FS-05-1868-312 (003.1) URS-4 reverse hub IIb reverse of 68 type one and that makes it a $300 coin!
C-B-D your's is slightly different as it has a mpd but also an repunched date as well. Maybe a new variety . I would ask Howard .

 

Broken reverse hub IIb, as for the other hubs it was how they were scribed . Again remember that shields were thicker smaller diameter and hard alloy. Plus they were in uncharted waters. As half dimes were in silver .900 .100 copper. Thus a softer strike somewhat the clashes were because they were so thin.
Going from a silver alloy to nickel/copper for a 5 cent coin was new to the mint. They needed coinage for commerce as well as something people would use and not hoard. Another thought is that 5 cents was a lot of money in that time frame. Most men didn't even have a penny in their pocket.

 

I myself would love to see some discussion on this! Where are the know-it-alls??

 

Remember this at that time US mint employee's were not educated.Yes the top management was but for the most part the men whom worked there were not. Plus DRINKING rum, whiskey and what else was allowed. The mint was under pressure to get coinage out. Quality assurance was never even thought of . I'm sure some workers were skilled,however job one was production. Besides whom would of guessed as a mint worker that some 125 years later that the coin would still be around and people collecting them as well as judging their work.

 

I agree with Paddy , when you can find MPD in the dentils , you can fid them anywhere . Nice find of a MPD or numeral .

 

Who knows why they placed numbers in certain areas.
Maybe test punch. Maybe a slip of the hand. I do find them in crazy places. But again quality assurance was not job one. Production production and even more production. Get er done!

 

Very nice find. I guessing here, but I have dropped a punch or two. If it didn't hit squarely on the surface the details would appear smaller.

 

The mint workers were probably listening to their ipods and texting while working. Its hard to get good help.

 

This is one reason I love cherry picking shields, one never knows what one may find. Those whom think they are experts are most of the time closed minded. Those whom are open minded are willing to yes question but also except things others just discount.
In this hobby to make a blanket statement that this could not happen to me is opening your self for failure . As I've seen things that one may think impossible be very possible and or real. Look at the variety finds in the last six months. An 1919 dime that's a ddo some 97 years after the fact it's been around,and a collectors have had to had one in their collection at one time or another.

 

Will work for beer.

 

Do you think maybe the die had a permanent 1 at some point and they just changed out the last three digits between years? Just a thought

 

It's not, or ever has been the machine that made it, that causes us as humans deem something as collectable. It's the human intervention that is collectable.

 

Good point however these dies only had between 10,000-12,000 strikes in them before they would explode. Now they did use them until they were completely done,but this was a hard medal to strike a coin in.​