Handled A Rarity And Didn't Know It

My daughter volunteers at the local historical society here in our town in SE Wisconsin. There is a woman whose family has lived in the town since the 1840s. (That's very old for this area.) She and her sisters have donated many old items to the society.

The woman contacted me about looking at some old coins that had belonged to her grandmother. I met with her and her husband yesterday at the historical society to go through the coins.

She didn't have a lot of coins and most of them were worn U.S. pennies, half-dimes, dimes and half dollars. She had a small box with a few old foreign coins in it, mostly early twentieth century European coppers.

One of them was a Victoria Bun Head Penny. I picked it up to see the date 1863. There was a tiny 3 under the date. I told them that I know some British Victoria shillings had die numbers on them, but that I hadn't ever seen them on pennies. I told them they should have this one checked out by a professional coin dealer.

Last night I decided to do some research on the coin and was floored when I discovered how special the 1863 pennies with die numbers on them are.

I emailed her immediately and she is going to have the coin appraised by someone who knows a lot more about them than I do.

But I did get to hold it in my hand, even if, at the time, I didn't know what a special coin it was. it's a pretty nice coin, probably a Very Fine, with nice dark patina.