The last digit took a nasty hit. Wondering if anyone has any insight on what it could be. Perhaps @Marshall does?
Type 1 hair so it has to be 96, 97 or early 98. Other key features are the highest wave of the hair is below the left foot of the R, Rev type of 97, small fraction with wide spaced digits, and strong die cut joins right end of the fraction bar to the ribbon. Those features narrowed it down to 97 S-141 or 98 S-145. The spacing between the right stem and the leaf above doesn't match 141, and it does appear to have a die chip above the 1 and below the bow knot that matches 145.
Looks like 1797 to me but Conder is saying 1798. Maybe someone was missing the 1797, so they just smoothed the last digit and replaced it?
I’m going with 1798 s-145 too. Agree with Conder on it being one of the 2. I see the chip which makes me think 145 too. Looks like someone was trying to tool the date into something else and gave up. Likely a 9
Maybe! All I know is that while I was reading his post, in my head I heard it being narrated in Peter Falk's voice. LOL
I just logged on, but as Conder already mentioned, the style 1 hair limits it to 1796, 1797, 1798 or the first obverse of 1800. I'll check focusing on the reverse which has a distinct right fraction bar almost touching the right ribbon. As I expected, I concur with the S-145 from the reverse alone.
He would need to start the conversation by nonchalantly asking for a pen or matches and explaining how his wife (whom I'm still not quite sure ever actually existed) always.... Are you guys sure this coin isn't a counterfeit? I can't get over the overall texture of the coin, even in the recesses, yet LIBERTY is still so well defined. The denticles look all out of whack. This isn't a series I'm intimately familiar with.
The extra long dentils show up occasionally in 97 and 98. The close date is common with the early 98s as is the Large 8 which is obscured on this example.
Looks like the perpetrator was pretty sure he wanted it to say 1791. Got the spacing pretty decent. Maybe it was done at a time and place with scant numismatic information available (like out on the carnival circuit ~ 1900) - and the attempt was to produce 'the oldest U.S. penny ever seen' or some such.
That was the feature I honed in on. My first thought was S-140, but the T in LIBERTY was not defective. I had not memorized other relevant varieties, and I am too lazy to check your work. As usual, I think it is safe to assume you are correct.
The berry at (T)E is distant from both the leaves above and below unlike either the S-140 or S-141 where it is either into the leaves above or almost touching. Also, on the S-140 the AT almost touches and the S-141 the ER almost touch. On this, the spacing of each is centered between the adjoining letters.
