Ok. first up is a 1868 Shield Nickel . It's a FS-903 ( FS-05-1867-903), ( Broken part of C in Cents, S also in Cents and finally the the upper loop of the S in States . It can be identified by looking at 12:00 on reverse , if the Star points to the S, it is the "reverse of 1868". Most were struck using 1867 dies. My question is what would you grade it ?
I never set any store by Fivaz-Stanton varieties. I mean, more power to those who do- it's just not my cuppa tea, personally. 'Nother dug coin? If so, that's quite nice for a ground find. It does look slightly porous, though (unless that's just grainy photographs). But very nice for a dug nickel, if in fact you dug it. I'd say XF details.
No. Not dug coin. Just a little to grainy. Too nice for Nickel. I bought this one for $71 on Ebay. It was sold as a regular 1868. It's worth 3x that amount. check the Cherry Picker's guide .
Don't have the Cherrypicker's Guide anymore, for the reasons mentioned. I gave my copy away. It's just not my thing. For some reason, I just personally have zero interest in die variety minutiae. (Well, OK, more than zero. But not very much.) But more power to you, if that's your thing. I know a lot of folks are into that stuff, and I respect their attention to detail.
OK fair enough. These are actually , I think my first Variety coins, so it's exciting to put together A complete set. Just need 2 more . The less rare ones . FS-901 / FS902.
