1857 Flying Eagle Cent

But we love to speculate!

The shape I see above and between the 5 and 7 sure looks like the top of a misplaced 7 digit. Since misplaced dates are fairly common varieties in early US coinage it seems possible this is an example. If so it is unusually obvious and would likely be of great interest to variety specialists. Has a similar coin already been described in Flying Eagle references?

The wisdom or foolisshness of speculation is tied to expenditure for me. This coin was inexpensive. I don't see a down side.

It's enroute to me from Ft Myers Fl. and will be a few days getting here. When it arrives, I'll shoot some decent close ups of it.

One man's speculation is another man's study. By studying these impressions left on the flying eagles, it has become necessary to study coins of other denominations. Being able to recognize the bits and pieces of other designs is imperative.

The first FE cent pictured in the "Beyond the FE Cent ...Mule clashes" thread ... I have decided that those "streaks" for lack of a better description match up favorably with the rock to the left of the shield of Miss Liberty on the Half Dollar.

That rock is another subject altogether though ... because there are several different versions of detail in it. Some of that is related to clashing as well. I saw a half that somebody was pointing to some minor aspect of (I forget what is was now), and what I noticed, that they didn't (apparently), is that most of the folds in the drapery to the right of the shield were completely absent. The coin was not worn excessively, nor did it appear damaged.

The more you look at this stuff, the more puzzling it becomes.

Chance

Considering the seller is a longtime member here, why don't we just ask him ourselves?

Take that image ... crank the contrast on it and see if you see anything else.

I decided to pick this one up as well. As worn as it is, it's an interesting coin for other reasons.

While I haven't seen an awful lot of obvious lamination peels in this series ... it sure seems to be an alloy that is poorly mixed, leaving places where dissimilar metals meet, which encourages corrosion via electrolysis.

Chance

Here's one that has an interesting reverse ... at the periphery it is strong on the eastern side ... but not what you expect to see there. This is the coin I thought about buying ans dissolving to see if the yellow spots remain in the acid. I see lots of these with these specks, and I see 20 dollar gold images frequently. I know ... power of suggestion ... maybe, maybe not.

I can easily imagine fragments of precious metal floating around the mint in those days. I bought a silver eagle 3 pc set in 2006, and there were loose fragments of silver in that set.

For a 2 year series (discounting the 56 as a regular issue) there sure is anough to be of interest in this series.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wholesale-1...em337c28826f

Chance

The second coin posted is different as well. What in the minting process could cause something like this?

The third coin looks to have had a tough life. Maybe it was a metal detector find?

If there were gold imparted on that coin, surely it would have worn off by that time. The coin itself is so worn, much of the devices are gone and there is a great deal of corrosion. The gold, being softer, would have worn away much sooner than the copper... or fallen off the coin.