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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bill in Burl, post: 1799752, member: 23692&quot;]I co-wrote the Charlton variety section for the 2011 (65th edition) Victoria Cents with a couple other guys.&nbsp; Unfortunately, Bill Cross at Charlton only had room for inclusion of 80 varieties ... there could have been easily double that without getting into those that require more than a 5X loupe. I have nearly 1000 1859&#039;s so I&#039;m well-versed on what&#039;s out there.&nbsp; It&#039;s hard to tell from your photos, but I don&#039;t see anything in any of the key markers (or places to look) that says it&#039;s anything uncommon.&nbsp; The 1859&#039;s were strange ducks ... thin bronze planchets that were struck on machines designed for thick copper.&nbsp; Dies and machinery were eaten up (plus the intricate reverse design) by the combination.</p><p><br /></p><p>Since they used the masters and hubs from the 1858 strikings, the last 8 was removed from the hub and all the dies started out as &quot;185&quot; and then the 9 was handpunched in.&nbsp; Since it took 2-3 pressings just to make the &quot;185&quot; blank working die (between alternating cycles of annealing &amp; quenching) and then 2-4 whacks with the hammer and punch to add the &quot;9&quot;, there are almost too many 1859 varieties to count.&nbsp; Some working dies lasted less than 5000 coins before being destroyed .. some 50,000 or more.&nbsp; Some obverses were married to as many as 6-7 different reverses.&nbsp; There could be 300 or more 1859 &quot;varieties&quot; (I think about 200 reverse dies, but check the Hazby site), but only a relative few (maybe 20-30) worth collecting unless you are a die-tracker.</p><p><br /></p><p>Because the 9 was handpunched (with no guides) and not knowing if the guy had shakey hands or a liquid lunch, the last digit is all over the place.... they are high, low, near, far, skewed right or left and any combination of the mix.&nbsp; I have no idea how the designation of &quot;low 9&quot; ever got into trends .. it certainly really isn&#039;t a real variety (how low is low?) and no one in the 1859 collecting community requested it, so how did it come to be?&nbsp; I&#039;ve looked at well over 100,000 1859&#039;s and a low 9 is no harder to find than a high one or a near one or a far one.&nbsp; I personally think that the near/high one is the hardest to find of the &quot;plain&quot; coins that don&#039;t have true evident repunching.&nbsp; Of all the 1859&#039;s that I&#039;ve looked at, I&#039;ve never found a single coin that didn&#039;t have a die crack, repunched digit/letter, or break in the hub design that causes &quot;open&quot; or incomplete letters ... and I&#039;m not even counting the vine breaks at 7 &amp; 13 that EVERY 1859 has.&nbsp; Don&#039;t be mislead by Ebay offerings that accentuate D/C&#039;s or barely repunched elements that can be seen only by 40X magnifications... at 40X, EVERY coin has some multiple-strike misalignment.&nbsp; The 1859&#039;s are one of the most facinating series that you can colllect.&nbsp; It&#039;s almost like collecting a new decimal denimation series .. say a 7 cent piece with a million or less struck annually for nearly 50 years.&nbsp; Just because your coin is not listed in any variety publication, doesn&#039;t mean that it&#039;s not a keeper.&nbsp; Go to Haxby&#039;s Vicky site and you&#039;ll be able to track down what working die was used for either side, as well as the die state (early thru late) as it wore and then broke.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m sorry that I was so verbose, but Vicky varieties are my passion.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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