1877 Liberty Dime Blank Reverse

With this one, you may never know, but back when that dime was circulating, there was a fad for making "love tokens," and Seated Liberty dime reverses were often smoothed flat for the subsequent engraving. Maybe yours was an abandoned effort at a love token, or maybe it was a love token that for predictable reasons, was defaced all over again to become an "unloved" token?

Like I said, it is impossible to know—could be something else entirely—but it is possible to come up with a historically plausible explanation. It is one of the few times where damaged/altered coins are interesting to me.

to the CCF

Numistcrat's explanation is most plausible. The reverses of Seated coins were typically planed, leaving the dates intact. I can't help but wonder how many rare CC's (Carson City Minted coins) met this fate?

To be clear .... The subject coin did circulate for a time; this, as evidenced by the obverse wear. Then, the reverse design was planed down and smoothed by a machinist. This dime never made it to the engraver.

Here's an 1858 cent that experienced the same damage, afterwhich a guy named H. SHADES stamped his name and a number 6 .... thereby, likely creating a six cent token to give out in his business.




Many a coin has suffered similar indignities to serve someone's purpose.