Hoard Of 80 1888 Cents - Variety Search Results

I took a chance on a hoard of 80 1888 cents from an Ontario dealer, for $3 each, that were sitting on ebay for a few months.

They appeared uncleaned and unsearched for the most part, and a thorough search yielded 14 coins with 8 different varieties (most in VF):

1. 1st 8 - high over low 8 - one
2. middle 8 - bead punch - two
3. middle 8 - bottom loop repunched ("tail") - two
4. last two 8s - bottoms repunched - one
5. last 8 - heavy repunch left - three
6. last 8 - top loop repunched slightly - one
7. last 8 - bottom loop repunched well - one
8. obverse die clash - beads above portrait - four

I was surprised the die clash was the most common variety and usually quite faint.
My most favourite was the 1st 8 high over low, and it was one of the rarest - only 1 in 80 coins.
The strange one was the middle 8 "tail", which looked like the remnant 8 was shifted very far from the edge.

All in all, many of the 1888 repunched 8 varieties are quite scarce.