Picked thus coin up today from a friend of mine who happened to be in town and owed me a little money. I always thought this particular variety was neat because of how the mintmark disturbed the R and the D.
Matt , it must be like Christmas every time something this cool walks into your shop , one of these days I'll have to drive to Indianapolis to check out some goodies . I wonder where they found that punch and if even the punch they used for the dollars were that large . Very cool variety .
Dang Doc , that's about the best description of that mm I've heard . The Cheerio Variety , has a good ring to it . Better than that Cheerio Sacajawea in the give away boxes .
It's thought that the reverse die was mistakenly sent from Philadelphia without a mintmark (normally the branch dies were marked prior to shipment) and the NO mint had to hand punch it with whatever was available locally.
Alternative name: the "Bagel O" (more acceptable in NY and Philly; In NO maybe the "Beignette O (although beignette lack a hole). Just thinking out loud.