So I was sitting at the diner this morning with some of my buds when up walks our local collector of all things nostalgic and the purveyor of local lore and scandal of the last 80 years. This guy has so much "stuff" that he's been on Pickers twice. I made a oil plug wrench for him to fit his 1924 American LaFrance fire engine. After the usual insulting salutations shared between good friends, he pulls from his pocket six discs of metal with an intriguing old copper look to them. One is a brass Franklin Pierce political medal/token, one is a 1852 Nova Scotia halfpence, three are no-count Matron Head large cents. The sixth coin caught my attention - a draped bust large cent with only the 179 of the date readily apparent. None of us old geezers could make out the last digit but of course I was asked "What's it worth?". I said if it was a 1799 it was worth hundreds of dollars even in it's "scudzy" state so of course one fellow was convinced he saw a 9. Home it came with me where I took some photographs and I am pretty sure it is the common 1798 S-166. I would appreciate some other eyes on it with your thoughts on attribution. Oh, coin weighs 161.82 grains/10.483 grams and diameter varies from 28.49mm to 28.70mm so it's in the ballpark. Edge doesn't show any seams or other characteristics that might cause suspicion of it being a counterfeit. Secondarily, there are some interesting features on the obverse and reverse. While the coin exhibits some fairly heavy corrosion, there is a big spot on Liberty's bust that looks more to me like a planchet flaw than a post-mint hit or corrosion. There are two things that argue for planchet flaw and they are the somewhat ragged edges plus what appears to be a planchet flaw on the reverse at K1. Now, on the reverse extending from EC left and down to CA is a great big blob of what appears to me to be metal. What are your thoughts on this? A great honking die chip that came out of the die? Something post-mint? Here are the pics and feel free to opine. After all, it's not my coin so my feelings can't be hurt.
It would interesting to x-ray it to see if the coin had a big irregular hole in it. Could the blob of metal be a crude repair?
I forgot to mention that the coin is standard "coin turn" with the reverse off about 15 degrees from 180 degrees. That puts the reverse "blob" originating about the middle of Liberty's head, extending through her face to just short of K2 on the obverse. So the reverse blob does not appear to have anything to do with the big pit on the obverse. I don't see any evidence at the margin of the reverse blob to indicate that someone might have hammered or soldered something in there. The adjacent devices don't seem damaged in any way. Anybody else see some reddish tints in the middle of the blob? Iron oxide? The reverse blob just seems to look like it was struck that way. If so, then the only explanation I can devise is if the die failed catastrophically and a great honking section of it fell away. As for x-raying, I'm seeing an oral surgeon on Tuesday. Think he might agree to shoot the coin? Somehow I doubt it but now that you mention it, I'll give it some thought.
Definitely 1798 S-166, and it looks like corrosive postules on both sides with the obverse one having burst and broken away. I see no evidence of there having been a hole.
