Does anyone know the value of a 1864 2-cent reverse die clashed with obverse Indian head cent? I have one but have no idea how to price it. It's in a PCGS Genuine questionable color holder. Full "WE". I'm not trying to plug my own stuff, but I'm going to take it to the FUN show this week and I don't know what to ask for it. I've listed it on an auction site a couple times with a pretty big price tag, but no takers on it of course. Thanks.
Can you please explain what you mean by how it clashed with an indian cent? I don't really know anything when people talk about clashes. I'm not an error guy.
Some guy was screwing around at the mint and took the obverse indian head cent die, lined it up with a reverse 2-cent die and smacked them together with no coin blank in between them. The force caused a mirror image to show up on the dies. Then when the mint went to use the correct dies, all the coins that were stamped came out with the marks/image like this.
It is what you say it is. I would take it to Rick Snow. If you have time, I would also like to see it in person, I will be at table 232. Breen does not mention it in his book nor does Kevin Flynn mention it in his Two Cent book. BUT.... Rick Snow does mention it in his book... He has a picture of the same clash as you and says "An 1864 Large Motto Two Cent piece is know with light clash marks on the reverse from the obverse of an Indian cent. The corresponding cent with a clash from a two cent piece is not know." These clashes occurred when the dies were being changed out. The operator would cycle the press to seat the dies (that's the theory anyway). It could very well be that the Indian head die was so worn and or damaged that it was never put back into use, hence why we have the clashed two cent piece and not the clashed Indian head cent.
I'll bring it by before I take it anywhere else. On the PCGS holder it reads: "Rev clashed with Obv Indian 1c" I paid the variety fee.
Interesting. Lots of people know about the 1857 clashes, and I know of a couple of 1868 dual denomination clashes on three cent and shield nickels, but I had never heard of this one. One problem with this theory is that if you were going to cycle the press to seat the die, you would NOT want it to cycle against a metal die. To much chance of damage to the die face. You would use a block of wood or something similar. Hard enough force the seating of the die, but soft enough to cushion the impact and protect the die face. I would also expect that the seating of the dies into the die holder would not be that difficult and cycling the press to force it in does not seem practical. (A press fit into the holder? How would you get the die back out when you needed to change it? Remove the entire die holder, put it in another press with no anvil die and use the press and a slightly smaller piston to ram the die back out of the holder? Doesn't seem practical.)
