Here are seller's photos of a 1798 I recently picked up. I'm a bit stumped trying to attribute the Sheldon variety. S-185 seemed close but I'm not sure if the die chip diagnostics line up. I couldn't pass up a cleanly graded 1700's date and I am happy with the coin in hand. A bit of porosity but uniform color and no damage. Any help on variety would be appreciated! Also the "u" in "united" looks like it has something going on with it.
S-187 On the reverse, check the upper left berry. It's called the "drooping berry" variety due to its unique angle.
Thanks! I can see now that the berry is distinctive. But isn't there supposed to be a large obverse right die crack?
The reverse is a rock solid Sheldon DD with the fallen (drooping) berry at C(ENT). The obverse should have the characteristic breaks in the obverse of a late state Obverse 34, but it doesn't. If those breaks haven't been removed post mint through buffing or tooling, then a couple of possibilities occur to me. One, this S-187 was struck before the S-186 and then then paired again afterwards with a later Die state reverse OR the obverse was polished and briefly obscured the die cracks. I see nothing die related to believe this is not the 34DD or S-187. The position of the HWH and SHWH below R and E respectively rule out the Obverse 33. Edit This appears to show the crack from (C)A to below the final cypher of Die State II. With Conder seeing a trace of the first die crack on the obverse at Y, it is likely simply a die state II S-187 and the misshapen U(N) on the reverse likely PMD or a temporary strike issue.
The wear pattern on the coin makes me think that it was struck on a planchet that was porous to begin with, since the worn areas of the devices don't show the same porosity. Could that have obscured the cracks?
