Since I recently acquired a coin which was misattributed by PCGS, I thought I'd pass along this information to help novices and PCGS out. (coins are usually from Icollector of the Holmes collection with occasional entries from Heritage, ANS and eBay.) Redbook really zeroes in on items not diagnostic of the types. No wonder the novice collectors are confused.
Thank you, Marshall. That is very helpful in helping determine the reverses for the LCs of 1796. It will save me time next time that I try to attribute a 1796.
Exactly what Eduard said. I have to keep this thread in mind. I might try it when I swing buy the local shop today, assuming of course they have any of the early dates.
Very nice illustration, Marshall. FWIW, here's the decision tree I follow... First, look at the shape of the bow. The "round" bow is very distinctive. If the coin has the round bow, it's a reverse of 97. As for the two flat bows... The 94 reverse ONE CENT always looked "smooshed" upwards. Whereas ONE CENT on the '95 reverse is more normally spaced. Make sense? Have fun....Mike
I just checked and all the Reverse of 1794s have CENT high and leaves are under the bottom . All Reverse of 1795s have CENT between low and central so that the leaves are beside CENT rather than below the bottom of it. So this IS diagnostic as well for 1796s, though not for 1795s. There are only 3 Reverse of 1794s anyway, though they are used on 11 pairings. Here is my list of Reverse of 1794s:
