I have a 1868 shield nickel that looks to be around Fine/EFine, does the die cracks in the coin increase or decrease the value, or no change to the amount the coins worth? I will post a picture to come..
This series there should be a premium if it isn't cracked. Nice coin need to get a better image of the date. Looks to have been repunched or misplaced. Or both... Look under the 8's between the date and rim. Also inbetween the digits. Clean shots or since you have it in hand have a peek and tell us.
I don't have it on me, but I will take a better photo of the date later this week, thanks for the help. And what grade would you say it is? Am I pushing my luck hoping it is better than Fine?
Die cracks are common but on Shield Nickels you'll get a premium if it doesn't have any cracks. Yours is very nice but it does have cracks everywhere. VF-45 I'd say.
No real premium. It doesn't really matter to me personally. I kinda like them. I have a high grade one with a nice die crack. They shouldn't effect the grade.
So what akes shields so fun to collect is the varieties and more to be found as it has often been said that there's more unknown ,unfound varieties in the shield nickel series. The reason being the early years high mintages, and a new material that was being struck.....one that by 10 k strikes the die would explode......so lots of die marriages. Let's first look at the obv. The date has been repunched using several different punches... one really needs to compare all the digits to others used the same year. Notice the two 8's do they look alike? How about the 6 ???.....looks more like a 9 turn the picture over..... Next look at the RL-2 The RL stands for right leaf #2 second from top . One major variety found on shields is the missing leaf....now this has all the leaves,but look at the RL-2 notice the outer leaf ......sort of looks like a second thought. The broken star #2 on the reverse is the dead give away for the reverse type .
Nah.....this is what your looking for.... Shields are fun! Plenty of varieties to not only to be had....but found too!