As the year comes to a close, I was thinking about what coins I was fortunate enough to acquire this past year and many were coins with interesting varieties. Some of my favorite are bold Repunched (RPD's) and Misplaced dates (MPD's). So, you may wonder what caused these neat varieties? Kevin Flynn has written several books and articles on coin varieties. Here is his explanation (paraphrased): A Misplaced date occurs when the date is fully or partially punched into the legend, devices, denticles, or any part of the field not normally associated with the general location of the date on the coin (see 1883 below). A Repunched date occurs when one or more digits of the date were punched into the die sometimes in more than one area, which makes the digits of the date overlap or show as completely separate images. During the 1800's, the dates were punched into each working die by hand as a final step in the production. If a mistake was made - such as the date wasn't punched hard enough or was punched at a tilt or upside down or even in the wrong place, or if the wrong size punch was used - the engraver might try to remove the old date with abrasives, or simply repunch the date over the first date. In the case of the 1865 Fancy 5 over Plain 5 (see photo below), the working die was first struck with a Fancy 5 date punch, then struck with a Plain 5 date punch. The right base of the "1" in the Fancy 5 is twice the length of the Plain 5. Also, if you look carefully, you can see the tip of the corner of the Fancy 5 under the Plain 5. Although I currently don't have any in my collection, Overdates are another really fascinating variety. An overdate occurs when a coin contains dates of different years. This might have been punched intentionally for a number of reasons, including a shortage of metal to make dies, too many dies for a particular year, the working dies produced for one year might not have been used or may have been used very little, or on the second hubbing of a working die a new working hub with a different date was used. [http://www.bakercoins.net/learn/variety/rpd/index.html] What I find most appealing about repunched and misplaced dates are the ones that you can almost see with the naked eye - well, maybe way back when I had YOUNG eyes! Here are some of my favorite repunched dates from my personal Indian cent collection. So, let's see some of your favorite RPD's, MPD's, and Overdates as well!
So far the only one I have is the 20/19 capped bust half, which is sitting in the sdb, so no pictures to show
Over dates? Of any kind? I only have one IHC with a RPD and that is a 1866 Snow-3. No pictures of it. Let me look around - I know I have over dates.
One of these days I will have to add some tags over on photobucket. Will add a few more in as I find them. 1799/8 BB-142 How about a 1806 over upside down 6 usually 1806/9, but I do not want people to think it is a true overdate: Or how about 1814/3 1806/5 Quarter 1810/09 And I also know I have a 1879/8 proof shield nickel, 1798/7 Large Cent - plus a few other bust halve overdates. Just no pictures on photobucket. Plus I do not know how many RPD shield nickels. Figure this should be enough for one night.
Charmy, you are very lucky to be able to call those coins yours. They are fantastic! Thanks for the little lesson on RPD Can't wait to see what you can get in 2010! :thumb:
Thanks for posting these! Larry, those are some fantastic overdates - really bold! Mr. Guy, I love 1864 RPD's - there seems to be quite a few in that year, even for Indian cents, many with really significant repunching. And Errorhunter, that's an especially popular date for repunched mint marks. Thanks again for sharing these!