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

This is a great thread.

Ok, two more unusual circulated coins. This time they're colonials, and they're both Connecticuts. And like the Henning Nickel above, they are counterfeits! Yup, a cent was worth enough back in the late 1700's to justify making counterfeits that didn't have (at the time) a numismatic premium. As you can tell by the wear, they were accepted as genuine by the general public, and used regularly for trade.

Quite a number of CT coppers were counterfeits, and I think all, or almost all of them can be attributed to 3 counterfeiters; Walter Mould of Morristown, NJ, John Bailey of NYC, and Benjamin Buell (Machin's Mills) of Newburgh, NY.

Walter Mould was a legal minter (producer?) of New Jersey coppers, but I guess he decided he could fatten his wallet a bit by minting lightweight CT coppers. The "Muttonhead" variety below is attributed to Mr Mould.

John Bailey had done some subcontracting work for Mould on the NJ coppers (the "Running Fox" variety is his), and I guess he learned a few other things from Mould (pure speculation on my part). The "Horned Bust" variety is attributed to Mr Bailey.

Machin' Mills was a legitimate coin mint, and is believed to be responsible for all of the 1788 CT coppers, as well as some other counterfeited coins (British Halfpence, Vermont coppers), and was also a mint for the Fugio. I don't have any samples of Machin's Mills counterfeit CT coppers.

I think it's interesting that these counterfeit coins were readily accepted back then. My guess is that as the country's monetary system was in it's infancy, and there was little means to educate the public as to what is genuine, folks would just accept them thinking that worse case, they have some copper. And since there was so little of it out there, with many different varieties, it would be difficult to know right off what was the real stuff and what wasn't.

1787 Connecticut "Muttonhead" (brought to you illegally by Walter Mould)


1787 Connecticut "Horned Bust" (John Bailey)

 

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Great thread. Thanks for the education.

 

Circulated counterfeits! Amazing! thanks. I suppose that in small denominations it never really mattered much - as it seems like they had "material" value. If someone was to circulate a quarter that had 25c worth of silver or something else of value in it I wonder if people would accept it? I think I've seen where there are gold bugs who have created gold currency like that - with thin strips of gold encapsulated?

 

The 1851O Trime is 90% silver.

 

If you mean are cuds common, no not really, but a lot more common than they are on modern coins. Steel quality and forging was more hit and mis back then. If you mean on the 1811 half cent...The 1811 is a scarce date in half cents and this variety comes in five different die stages, Stage I perfect die with no cracks, scarce. Stage II with rim to rim crack through the first four stars, very rare. Stage III with crack from rim to star 2, very rare. Stage IV two star cud at stars 1&2, extremely rare. Stage V with the four star break shown on the earlier example, rare.

In his case probably no background check. The early mint was almost a "family affair" with several of the officers related to each other, and employment being passed from family member to family member. Their were members of the Eckfeldt family at the mint from the beginning to around the 1880's. Theodore was an Eckfeldt, so he was hired.

Not the dies, but the hub used to make the 1856 dies. The hub contained all the details except the date. So the early 1857 dies were made with the 1856 hub, then they made modifications and a new hub which they used for the rest of the 1857 dies.

To a large extent it was just a matter of not having anything else. Coins were in short supply and anything of the right size tended to be used including tokens, medals, and even buttons. If you don't have any other choice you'll take it. Kind of like during the 1974 cent shortage people accepted pieces of candy instead of cents.

No, the 1851 and 51 O trimes were 750 fine silver. The fineness wasn't raised to 90% silver until the type II trimes in 1854.

 

Thanks for the correction. I scanned my redbook too quickly! doh

 

Yes, they are silver, but it was deliberately specified to contain less silver than it's nominal value, I.e. a half dime is 1.34g of 0.900 silver. 3/5 of that would be 0.8g (which IS the weight of the type 1 trime), but they are made of 0.750 silver...

 

To keep this going a little bit - and because this is an interesting coin that I only discovered was a quasi rarity until well after I bought it (and sorry if you already saw this in another posting).

It's a chop marked CC trade dollar, which in itself is not out of the ordinary at all, but it is a Type I/II (type 2 reverse) and a 2-M sub type (which is probably not relevant). According to Bowers in PCGS coinfacts the 1875CC trade dollar with a type 2 reverse is "exceedingly difficult to locate." He goes on to say the Marvin Jacobson who is an expert on the series has owned only two and never seen any others! So there! Must be that at the time the type 2 reverse was used trade dollars were not being sent oversees or weren't put in circulation? Who knows, but this coin which graded XF40 certainly was and it was recently approved by CAC. For the grade and issue that's pretty unusual too - although CAC doesn't identify how many are of the chop marked variety.



By the way, the indicator of the Type II reverse is the lack of berries under the eagle's left claw. The 2M indicator is a little more difficult to locate. It's ID'd by the double back feathers - which is difficult to discern without being able to compare the varieties.

Enjoy! Any other takers? I love to learn about these less than ordinary variations, etc.

 

Found this in my pocket change any ideas.

 

huh! false stamped date? And off center too. Stamping machine went wild. Interesting error. I should pay more attention to my pennies! Hah!

BTW, regarding that chop marked 1875 CC trade dollar - it's the type I/II with CHOP MARKS that is rare. Apparently not the die combination itself. thanks.

 

They will just call it a mint error (for a fee). “Discovery coin” is reserved for the first coin discovered of a new variety.

Looks like damage to me.

 

This one is out of the ordinary for me. I found this in a register in June of 2017. The key date of the Jefferson nickel series. 1950-D

I know countless generations have searched long and hard to find these in rolls and have never found one.

This one is a forever keep sake in my collection.

At first I thought surely it was as a counterfeit but several have said it’s genine and likely came out of the ground at some point before entering back into circulation.

 

Ah a rare CIRCULATED 50-D nickel. Eay to find in MS, hard to find circulated.

 

What if it is the first coin discovered of a new variety...? I wrote down on the form that it doesn't match any of the known varieties. Both fees were marked on the form.

 

Edit: nevermind; I reread your post. I see what you mean. I guess I am too used to Facebook idiots going: IS THIS A DOUBLE DIE AM I GONNA BE RICH I LOVE COIN ERRORS AND YELLING!

 

question about the 1950-D. Where is the D - under the corrosion (or dirt)? I don't know nickels very well so I wouldn't know where to look anyway.

 

On the reverse, to the right of Monticello

 

Up first is a roll find circa 1970. Thought I scored a nickle. I remember being slightly disappointed at first, lol.

The second is a contemporary counterfeit that was a ground recovery back in the 50' or 60's by my Grandmother in her garden in Upstate NY. This coin is special for a couple of reasons, the obvious first that my Grandmother gave it to me and second it lead me to on-line forums while searching the internet for information on it.

 

Here's a newp for my half dime collection. Haven't received yet as payment was sent out Monday, so the images are the sellers. One must realize as a h-10 collector it is a collection that is doable.... but ... some mintages are so small that it is a quest that could take a lifetime to complete. This 1865 S is one of two listed RPD's. It iz an RPD 002 1865/186. Now the 1865 H-10 has a mintage of 13,000.
The 1865 S 120,000 minited.
Seated half dimes were minted at Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco, dates minted between 1863-1868 Philly coins are the lowest mintages,however some O and S mint marks are extremely hard to find.
This series offers the collector of varities quite a few ....
7 obv. Die changes and 3 rev. Die changes.
Several date and mint mark differences,2 over dates , repunched stars /and no stars. There are several doubled dies ,and misplaced dates that can be found in the series . These also can be noted for some fanatic clashes,and die breaks.
So if you like a series that has so much to offer for such a small coin the half dime may interest you.
* considering some mintages if this was a Morgan or Peace dollar can you imagine the value that would be placed to obtain the date or mint mark? Take notice of the reverse die crack that runs bisecting the coin from 11 k to 3 k.
Also take notice of the clashes seen on both obv.and rev. Especially between Lady Liberty arm and staff.
I believe the broken O in of is actually punched upside down using a broken O punch.
This specimen looks to have some other items that I will be thrilled to scope out once it hits my mail box.

 

Awrsome...
Can"t wait for the photos