Hi, I am new to the coin world. I found this Indian head penny in an unopened roll of wheat's the other day and thought about posting it to sell but it is to unique to sell without finding out something about it. I have searched the web to try and find out some information about it but was unsuccessful. I was hoping someone could help. It is missing the date on the front, the word one and the letters en on the back. I have looked at the coin with a microscope and there are no indications of the date or letters ever being there. The surface where the date and letters should be look the same as all the other flat surface. I have posted some pics to get your opinion. I have called it the Unknown Indian because of the missing date. This could be a rare 1 in billion!! Thanks
Looks like someone removed the year and the other letters to make he/her own lucky penny with initials.
I would agree but looking at it with very strong magnification there are no signs of any removal of the date or letters. The surface where the date and letters should be looks the same as the area around the dates and letters. You would think there would be hi or low spots or even slight discoloration color variance where the date and letters should be. Thanks for your opinion
Although there are some scratches on the coin it doesn't look like someone had removed anything with an Exacto knife surely there would be some other imperfections outside of the scratches that appear to be the same over the the entire coin. Thanks for your opinion
From what I can see, it may have been a 1877, but with so much removed, it's will be hard to prove. You can almost see the outline of the 7's.
Hmm, anyone believe it may be a grease error? Just throwing that out there. I do love IHC's though. Beautiful coin that definitely has some history, error or not.
This is the rare coin talk commemorative token from when the group was all paper and pony express, ask the mods to show you some of their old archives.
It is definitely not an 1877. The last feather points between the C and A, indicating that it was minted from 1886-1909. This is PMD though and to most collectors, it is not valuable. Whoever removed the lettering was skilled not to leave much evidence, but there is no way that a coin can have that kind of error. Too much missing and too strong of a strike to even be a grease filled die.
The reverse tells the story more than the obverse, it is a a type of personal jewelery or token. So it is post mint damage ( PMD) and of no value other than that of a conversation piece. People underestimate the artistic ability of people in the past in this modern world. Remember that the dies for the original coin was engraved in metal ( and in reverse ) by a human, and many business areas used engravers for tasks done today with computers and computer controlled machines. Welcome to the Forum.
