In general I don't care for error coins. The ones I've had in the past have all been sold off. But this one is different; it adds to my Indian Head Cent set. An 1894/1894 IHC in PCGS MS-65 BN, CAC The RPD is NE. It's most obvious at the "9" but you can easily see it at the top of the "4". In hand at 6x it's also easily seen to the right of the "8". And the string of dots just to the right of the "1" is easy to see in this image but harder to see in hand.
That is a very desirable variety. It is a Snow-1 and Mr Snow rates this as a 5 star variety. I don't know what you paid for it but Cherry Pickers lists this grade at $5000 http://indiancentvarieties.com.fqdns.net/1894_varieties.html
Here's a pic of mine . I cherry picked this for $7.00 and I consider myself lucky to own it as it has a URS-9 rating meaning there are 125 to 250 known. You have a very exciting buy!
Pretty cool. One of the top 5 varieties in the series. Both coins shown are Die stage B. Stage C would have the cud. In Red this would be a 15K coin. I don't know the value in BN but it's up there.
While it is, indeed, a very cool coin, you have to take the rarity rating printed in a book with a grain of salt. It is a snapshot from before the book was printed, and it doesn't update itself over time. PCGS has certified 131 of these. I haven't counted NGC. ANACS has no doubt done a bunch, as well, and there are many raw coins. This is more a general warning about using rarity ratings than anything else.
I have all of the IHC except the 1877. With your revelation... now I have to go back to look at each coin to see if there is something special in the mix. Thanks
Correct on RPD. NE means Northeast which describes the location of the original punch with respect to the repunch (up and right).
Just for GP's I checked the population census for my coin. My dealer said it is a "top pop". For an 1894/1894 IHC, MS-65 BN: -- in PCGS it's 2/0 -- in NGC it's 4/0 I think I can safely say that makes me quite happy.