Neat Find - Possible 100+year Error?!

Also as requested, a photo of the back side:

I can see traces of what looks like a "5" after the 190.

There's no lack of large cent experts who follow this forum and maybe someone could clarify whether or not the last digit of the date on these early pennies was hand stamped. As I seem to recall the minting of coins with only the first three numbers of the date was a practical convenience because the same precast coins could be hand stamped and then released at any point during the same decade. If so it might seem that final digit either wasn't firmly affixed or at some point in time it got chiseled off.

Edit to add: look at your first pic, slanted sort of sideways, looks like an image of a missing "5". Excellent photo skill you have!

Great eye SilverDon, definitely looks like a 4. And adamgharavi! Good find!

I'm seeing the 5 now wildflowerAB. Very interesting.

The 5's were not hand-punched in as the final digit for that series. Many Edward cents were weakly struck to begin with, usually the reverse. If there is any kind of dish, ding or bend on the Obverse (portrait) side, it would cause a corresponding section on the reverse side to be convex, and wear away much faster than the rest .. it would be the highest point on the reverse.

I'm not sure what you mean by "hand-stamped". There were Victoria series cents that had the master punch (that strikes and makes the working dies) with only the first 3 digits. Each partially finished working die had the last digit then handpunched in. To fully complete the working die, it took 2-3 blows, sometimes 4) with the hammer and punch after alternate courses of annealing the die and hardening the punch.

A "filled die" doesn't mean that there is nothing there to strike the coin. It means that the incuse (inset) detail of the working die is partially full of dirt, wax, grime, meatl flakes or something else. Something would have been there and it could be weak or strong ... who knows, but the coin, when struck, had at least vestiges of the 4th digit there.

The coin is so heavily worn/used that it's hard to tell what happened. I still think that it's a ding that made the last digit protrude out on the reverse and it wore off. If you look at the Ed's right shoulder, you can see a heavy Obverse dish/dent there that would correspond to the last digit on the Reverse. Regardless, it's not worth the $5 paid. You could get an XF Edward for that price.

Too much PMD around the numeral to draw a conclusion----so the decision must be PMD unless better forensics say otherwise. A very neat mystery.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all of the replies, whether the coin is worth anything or not, it is still definitely an awesome find. Got me excited about coins again for a few days, speaking of which I have something else to post tomorrow when I am back from work!