I'd like your 2¢ on this 1864 deuce. Weak strike, filled die, or wear?

I just pulled the trigger on this 2¢ piece. It was a fair deal ($50) for the condition and I love it, but I'm curious about some of the weak spots on it, particularly on the letters. It's like wear in small localized areas - like the A in STATES or the IN in IN GOD. I would expect wear to be fairly uniform and the rim and details are pretty solid, so is this a weak strike or a partially filled die? Or is it just wear? Also, I see a bunch of these slabbed that look fine but have a details - cleaned grade. Does this look cleaned to anyone?

 

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A very nice looking specimen. The "weak spots" you mentioned looks to be caused by a grease filled die. A in states , "in god", and also "United". The only spot I suspect of weak strike would be the rim at 5-6 o'clock near the date. I would say yes to being cleaned, but it was done years ago, and has retoned nicely with a few hints of woodgrain. Over all a nice looking coin and I understand why you like it. All this is JMO.

 

t


(That is all 2 cents will buy you these days)

 

This is the Large Motto variety. Large is the more common of the two. Your coin looks to be in XF to low AU so you paid a far price, certainly not overpriced. I read something once about there wasn’t quite enough metal to fill in all the spaces when minted.
1864 was the first year for a Two Cent Piece and it is one of the shortest lived of the US coins. It is also the first US coin to bear the words IN GOD WE TRUST. These words are raised and they occur on a raised ribbon of two distinct heights. I have seen a number of these with similar features as you described.
Glad you’re pleased with the coin.

 

Two Cent Pieces can come with "delicate strikes" although that often happened at the end of series. Here is an 1870 that is not a great strike, but it has very little wear. It would not have taken long to have worn this one down to VF. It is a "classic grade" EF.



I think that the coin you bought was cleaned at one time and artificially recolored. The sort of grey color with the red copper peaking out here and there are the "tells" for cleaning and recoloring.

Given the price, you did okay. A lot of dealers try to pass these pieces off with the "WE" in motto weak or even missing as "EF." They aren't EF if the "WE" is weak.

 

Change Thread Title. 1864, not 1865.

 

Thanks for the info. I get a kick out of searching eBay for terms like AU or MS and seeing these ridiculously worn coins with a title that says "AU++". I guess they just look at it as a way to get their coin seen.

The "WE" on mine looks pretty solid to me.

 

Oops...done! Thanks for the catch.