Post and explain your "out of the ordinary" circulated US issue(s) or varieties

I'll start it with this interesting issue: An 1840 half dollar that was minted in New Orleans but doesn't have the "O" mint mark because it was the first year with the mint mark on the reverse, and since at the beginning of the year they only had reverse of 38' dies, they produced New Orleans half dollars with no mint mark - but definitely a New Orleans Issue. Later in the year they received new reverse dies that are properly marked "O". PCGS refers to this issue as "Reverse of 38" and NGC as "Med Letters". Relatively scarce - estimated 400 survivors.

 

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Interesting theme. Nice coin OP. The 1928 Classic Head half Cent is a good example. Cohen variety 2 is notable for having just 12 stars, an obvious die-punching error that was not caught at the time or simply permitted to go through due to the insignificance of half cents. Neither die was shared with the other two marriages of 1828 half cents. Mintage 606,000

While not a rare coin in circulated condition, the popularity of this variety elevates its value. Rarity is 5.8 with 600 estimated survivors in all grades.

 

Good one! 1828 Classic Head with only 12 stars! A "cast" typo! Cool. I wonder which state was left out?

 

2 Henning nickels of mine, of the counterfeit variety. Mr. Henning forgot to add a mintmark on top of his fake war nickels. ICG will slab and label counterfeits with a yellow label as displayed here.

 

Were these circulated as US money, or were they made just for collectors, or ....?

 

He made them to be circulated. Made roughly half a million. 100,000 reportedly made it in. Some people still find them. They weigh normally .3 ounces more and the 1944s are the easiest to find as the mintmark is missing.

 

Broadstruck. Off-centered. Rim flattened and is seen looking straight down on Reverse. Also, reverse of quarter has an "F" instead of "E" in the word "QUARTER".

 

Here's an interesting coin but not really "out of the ordinary" -- at least not for collectors of Classic Head Half Cents.

1811 Half Cent, Cohen 1 (4 star break).
Heck of a cud.

 

Here's one I posted about recently... it has a struck through Mint Error, and the "C" in AMERICA appears to have split serifs. Yet, no matching Variety exists for it! I'll be submitting this to NGC and see if they'll slab it as a "Discovery Coin" Mint Error.

 

This is all I have in terms of "out of the ordinary". The 1839-C HE is one of only two HEs (1839-D being the other) in the entire Liberty Coronet series run (1839-1908) that has its mintmark on the obverse.

 

VERY interesting!!!
I have both a C and D half eagle but I didn't know about the mintmark on the obverse varieties.

 

Following up on @charlottedude's branch mint lovelies...



For some reason dies were made and shipped to New Orleans for the first year of production of the trime. Nine pairs. But only the first year.

It's not like NO's 720,000 minting was a big addition to Philadelphia's 5,447,400 for the year. It couldn't be raw capacity: Philly hit over 18M and 11M the 2nd and 3rd years - which pretty much filled the demand.

Until 1908/1909 (Indian Head Cents in San Francisco) and 1912, when Liberty nickels were struck in San Francisco and Denver, the 1851O trime was the ONLY minor (non-silver) US Coin struck in a branch mint.

Charlotte and Dahlonega only minted gold. Carson City minted Gold and Silver coins.

So, you are looking at the only Branch Mint minor coin of the 19th Century!

 

This coin is cool not because of what it is, but because of where it was found.

So, everyone knows the story of Gone with the Wind, and the rascal Rhett Butler. Well, I live in Charleston, where that story was set. Rhett Butler was an amalgamation of actual historical characters, and his name was taken from prominent Charleston family names. The main smuggler he was based on, however, owned Schieveling plantation, just outside of Charleston. When I was in high school, I went and did a bit of metal detecting around the well outside the plantation house, and found this Barber dime. I know it's a bit later than Civil war, but I like to imagine ole' Rhett as a grandpa, flipping coins into the well with his grandkids.

 

The trime IS a silver coin. I don't believe it was classified as a "minor" coin.

 

Controversial 1853 "2" overdate - or not! Originally considered an over date, has more recently been disputed and now some people think it's an error. I've tried to figure this out myself, looking at an overlay of the 1852 date along with the 1853 "2" and it sure looks like the lines matchup perfectly with the potential 1852 remnant. It is the only "recognized" overdate in the Liberty Head $20 series.

 

BTW, thanks for posting and explaining all of these interesting pieces!

 

Certainly looks out of the ordinary to me. Is it extremely common on early half cents?

 

1857 Flying Eagle Mule Clash. Most are aware of these, but for those that aren't...

It's believed that a Dennis the Menace type nightwatchman at the mint by the name of Theodore Eckfeldt decided he'd mix 'n match dies, and made 3 (known) mule die clashes with the Flying Eagle cent. He may have also actually made coins with the mixed dies, but none have been found. He also made some plain-edge 1804 dollars in 1858. I don't think they did very good background checks on applicants back then!

Most common (I think) is the FE obverse clashed with the 1857 Liberty Seated Half Dollar Obverse (photo below)

Less common is the reverse clash with the 1857 Liberty Seated Quarter reverse.

The least common is the obverse clash with the 1857 Liberty Double Eagle ($20 gold) obverse.

 

Another Flying Eagle cent.

The 1857 Obverse of 1856.

I don't know the story behind this, but I guess these were early '57 FE's, and the mint used the barely (2,134 business and proof strikes combined) used '56 dies to strike the first x number of '57's. The tell-tales for this variety are the E in UNITED, the F in OF, and the M in AMERICA. You can see the difference if you compare it with the MDC I posted above. These are easy to cherrypick!

 

Actually, the 1st difference i noticed and maybe even easier, is the distance between the A and tail feather