Hi folks. I collect ancients, so I have no expertise with US coins. A friend of a friend has this penny, and he thinks he sees 1888E as the date. Can anyone help with a proper identification of this badly corroded coin (left)? Is there really an E after the date? What does the E signify? Sorry if this is a rank amateur question. I am a rank amateur.
Guess anything between 1880 and 1889 and you have at least a 10% chance of being right. Any or even all of the apparent marks in the last digit may be only corrosion. If it were mine, my curiosity would lead me to find a chemical or electrical way to remove gently the corrosion and see if there was anything left of the date under it, which there may not be. Ordinarily I would shudder even to consider that, but there is nothing you could do that would lower the value of this one, and the result might be interesting.
