Hello! First time poster here. I was going through the stash of inherited coins and came upon this $.10 with only 12 stars. Error coin? Common? Value? Thanks for your thoughts, Chris
:welcome:Welcome to Cointalk!!! Nice 1851-O seated dime.here a link for the die varieties known:thumb: http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/date_mintmark/1851ovarpage.htm http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/date_mintmark/top200.htm
There is supposed to be a 13th star to the left of Liberty's face. You could weigh it to see if it's 2.7 grams. It is also supposed to be 17.9mm. Unless there is some 12 star variety for this date, which I would have to grab my Cherrypicker's guide to find out .. I'm not sure on this one.
The more I look at it, the dime looks "off" ... the notches look like they were made from a cast instead of being pressed/minted ... I'll let others chime in on this, maybe the 13th star just got scraped off somehow
I seriously doubt if this coin is genuine. The '51-O was (and is) a favorite of the counterfeiters, and like stated above, it has that "look".
This may also help. I have seen a few seated dime that have 12 stars due clogged/worn dies but they were MS-63+ semi-rare and to much money for me to buy. but look thru this page there is a listing it just may not be 1851. http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/Table_of_Contents.htm
I don't see anything that would make me think it is a fake, and after blowing up the image I don't see anything that would make me think it was deliberately altered. A grease filled star is a possibility.
You may well be correct. Here's the reverse of a "replica" dime I have, and I do see obvious differences. However, the "look" of the OP's coin still has similarities to the way fakes are aged.
Thanks for the welcome, links and good discussion. I appreciate the skepticism. Not sure why a counterfeiter would omit a star. I put the coin on the scale -- 2.7 g. Here's a picture of another along side of the coin in question. It's a little more worn and tips the scale at 2.5 g.
