Found this large cent at my lcs today. What’s with the date? Does anybody know if this is a variety or error? I like it.
The date is normal. James Longacre liked to slant his 5's, some extremely so, such as the 1855 slanted 5's variety. I would imagine that the die engraver for this date was one of his employees.
what do you see with the date, because while a picture of the obverse and reverse is good for a general overview of the coin, it doesn't help at all to see the date. hahahaha. a close up of the date area would be good please. as clear as you can get the picture, when you zoom in on these it gets blurry. Also while you are there, a picture of the 10th star from the left, the one that's right around 3 o clock might also be useful, i feel like there's something going on there above the star? from NGC "There are a total of 45 numbered die marriages for 1851 cents. After the usual deductions for those that are now known to be duplicates in later die states, the net figure is 42. Most of these look almost exactly alike to anyone but a variety specialist, but the one standout is N-3. On this obverse die the first two numerals of the date were punched upside down and then corrected. An inverted 18 remains clearly visible underneath the 51. This variety is quite common, yet its appeal is such that it brings a premium that advances progressively with each grade." this one is what the kids call the "1851 over 1881" its and upside down 18 after the first 18 that right side up. it's going to be one of the varieties for that year, whether it adds any value, I can't tell you until you figure out which one it is. You might need a specialized book on the die marriages to figure it out and a lot of time making comparisons of minute details.
It's not the overdate. And what I was seeing above the 10th star looks like it's a mark on the plastic in the new picture. I don't think there's anything significant here to a variety collector from the pictures but you can spend the time with a book on them and follow the die markers to identify the die pair as a lot of research has already been done on them by others. I'm not sure of the reference material you need though.
Thank you for the reply. It’s a keeper for me. What’s interesting is that a crooked date on a more modern coin would be a major error, on these large cents, no big deal.
That is because the date was entered on the die as four digits in a separate operation. On modern coins the date is part of the working hub that is used to sink the die in one operation. Sometimes errors do occur. The two 1942 over 1 dime overdate coins happened at the end of a year. It takes three blows from the hub to make a die. When the workers were preparing these dies, the first blow put the "1941" date on the die. One or two of the second blows put the date "1942" on it. Hence you ended up with overdate coins.
