I recently picked up this variety in high AU, providing an excellent opportunity for some detailed photo analysis of the RPD. What I really find interesting on this RPD is the 9/9. Compared to most, the RPD is very deep and affects the overall shape of the digit–which will become clear with overlays. The 9/9 is far more striking in higher grades--here's the whole obverse--click to see it at 100% crop. I have chosen to work with grayscale variety shots, as color tends to confuse the details. From what I see, the date shows repunching on 3 digits: a. 1/1 south, b. 8/8 south, and c. a strong 9/9 north. The black arrows are the MPDs, some bold and others faint. As I study this RPD, the first question that comes to mind is “how is the 9/9 so strongly north, yet the 8/8 is weakly south? For this to happen with a single repunching, the 4-digit punch must be rotated around an axis closer to the 8 than the 9. To explain these positions, the date would have to be impressed similar to the overlay below. Note on my overlays–they were carefully traced from a high-grade 1889 IHC. The shape of the digits and their positions match closely to both MS and proof 1889 IHCs I compared. To clarify on below, the blue is the final position of the punch–the yellow is superimposed to explain the 8/8 south–notice how low the 1 digit would have to be? While this roughly covers the 8/8 on the outside, it doesn’t match the doubling on the inside loops, a shift which appears more linear, ie non-rotational. It’s also rather difficult to explain some things on the 9/9–due to the high rotation. Is it possible the 8/8 was a remnant of another RPD? Here’s a second overlay, positioning the RPD to match both the 1/1 and the 9/9 (red outlines). This seems to be a more reasonable position of the first date impression–although clearly the 8/8 cannot be south in this case. Finally, a closeup of the most interesting part of this RPD, the 9/9. The blue overlay is the final position of the 9. Without the overlays, it’s not as easy to visualize how distorted this digit has become. Unlike most RPDs, the 9/9 is very deep and both digits add to the outside shape, but subtract from the inner shape–resulting in a smaller top loop on the 9.
