Possible 1867 No Rays Shield Nickel Obverse Clashed With Rays

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Author	Replies: 3 / Views: 108
SilverStackerKid Pillar of the Community United States 6480 Posts	Posted Yesterday 10:07 pm This is an 1867 no rays Shield nickel. I believe the obverse shows signs of having clashed with a rays reverse. Most coin things turn out to be nothing, and I'm sure this is just going to be a well placed die gouge, but I do think it might be something interesting, so I wanted to see what you guys think too. This is a massive gamble and a big long shot but I love stuff like this so much. I'm trying to collect every Shield nickel variety. At least all the fletcher varieties and the cool ones in Spindel that aren't listed in Fletchers. I don't know why but I have to. So this is a gamble I'm willing to take. These are the sellers photos, they are way better than anything I can capture at the moment. This is the main clash mark I can see and an overlay I made. The coins in the images for the overlay are captured at slightly different angles, so it's not completely accurate, but shows where near the cross I see some clash marks. There are lots of heavy circular die polishing marks in the shield and in the fields are lots of long straight fine polishing marks. They really polished the obverse die hard. There aren't many potential clash marks remaining, but I think there is that ray coming out to the right of the cross, and the very very tip of a star and another ray coming out of the cross as well as shown in the overlay. Again this is a long shot, and I am a crazy person, I just think it's a cool chance that this is a non-rays clashed with rays. Not sure what to do with the coin at this point but I wanted to share it with you guys and see what you think. Thanks for taking a look. Edited by SilverStackerKid Yesterday 10:23 pm Report this Post to the Staff

MintedNotPrinted Pillar of the Community United States 1935 Posts	Posted Today 7H 11M ago I'm no expert, but I came to the same conclusion on that spot before scrolling down to your closeup and overlay. Looks like it is Report this Post to the Staff
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6986 Posts	Posted Today 7H 11M ago It's certainly an interesting anomaly. I think you can start making the case that the obverse was clashed with a rays reverse. Misalignment probably wasn't that uncommon 150 years ago. Two questions: Was the 1867 obverse the same for nickels struck with the Rays and No Rays reverses? i.e. could the Mint have kept an old obverse die in service to strike coins with the new reverse dies? Where are the other clash marks? I do see filing lines, so perhaps they were removed, but there should be scrapes in the same nearby areas where the dies made contact. Could this possibly be Feeder Finger Damage or some other kind of machinery damage to the die face? Definitely interested to see where this goes! Report this Post to the Staff
SilverStackerKid Pillar of the Community United States 6480 Posts	Posted Today 51M ago Thank you for the responses so far. Quote: Misalignment probably wasn't that uncommon 150 years ago. Yes that's a big part of this is that the dies would not have been aligned. So while it feels like I am just self reassuring my own evidence by making the design line up with the evidence I'm seeing, Spindels website it says that it's common for clashes to be rotated or misaligned. I think the 1867 no rays FS-1402/1901 is a good example of how misaligned these Shield nickel clashes get. So it's possible for this misalignment to happen and I don't think I'm making too big of a stretch. Well heck to be fair even in 1870 there is a 5c clash with 1c so who knows what was going on at the mint hahaha. Quote: could the Mint have kept an old obverse die in service to strike coins with the new reverse dies? Yes I think so since the "type A" obverse was used from 1866-1869, so the obverse design isn't different. Quote: Where are the other clash marks? I do see filing lines, so perhaps they were removed, but there should be scrapes in the same nearby areas where the dies made contact. Could this possibly be Feeder Finger Damage or some other kind of machinery damage to the die face? This is a good question and definitely gives me some things to research/think about. While some things line up, these are the kinds of things we need to answer to say for sure or not if this is a clash. It's too early for me this morning to think about anything but I'll get my gears turning in a bit hahahaha. Thank you for the thought provoking question. Edited by SilverStackerKid Today 49M ago Report this Post to the Staff
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