I read about the close date variety of the 1979 SBA. I have a 1979 mint set in a Littleton holder. The S has a narrow rim and the P has a thicker rim, and may be the close date ? But I think the rim on the D may be thicker than the S but thinner that the P ? Is the close date only on the P ? By "thicker", I mean "wider" into the obverse of the coin. gary
Great. So the 'narrow rim" is the normal rim for all the coins, or do the Phillies have wider and extremely wide rims ? I mean the rim on the P is definitely wider than that of the S & D, but I don't have another P for comparison (I don't think) I am stull going through my junk and pulling it a bit at a time. gary
Rim width varies a little so it's best to look at the distance from the rim to the bottom of the date. Only about 1.5% of the '79-P's are the "near date" variety. It doesn't appear from the other mints.
Cool. I can't tell. It looks a lot wider than the rim on the S, for sure. I still am having problems getting a decent pic and the psc I have developed a glitch this morning. If I can I will scan it and maybe you guys can tell ? Thanks, gary Finally got a pic !YaY !!! Is this the Wide Rim ?
No it isn't. The problem is you can't use the width of the rim to tell the difference. (As Cladking said.) Depending on how well centered the obv die is, you can have "wide rim" coins with narrow rims and "narrow rim" coins with wide rims. The ONLY way you can tell the two varieties apart consistantly is to look at the distance between the bottom of the 1 and rim. On the narrow rim/far date variety that distance is about 1 1/2 times the width of the upright of the 1. On the Wide rim/close date variety it is only about 1/2 the width of the upright of the 1. Look at the pictures posted by Coinmaster1 and you can clearly see the differences. Then look at the picture you posted and you can clearly see the distance from the rim to the bottom of the 1 is more than the width of the upright of the 1. So it is a narrow rim/far date even though the rim is actually very thick at that point. So IGNORE the width of the rim, look at the distance FROM the rim.
Thanks for that explanation. I probably have some more 1979's to use for comparison, someplace. Everything is in disarray since I started trying to sort through the junk. I saw the wider rim on the P. It is about twice as wide as the S and was hoping I had the rarer variety of course. Looking at it from the perspective you gave me, makes it much easier. Thanks a lot. I guess I will run out of questions when I run out of coins. And that is going to outlast me. lol gary
What a great comparison. Side by side, even I could see that. Using the S with a very thin rim wasn't working at all ! Thank you, gary
