Run Of Flying Eagle Cents With Errors

Where did ya find 'em ?

If you don't mind me asking, what did you have to pay for these beauties?

Yankee1227: the last two were $40 each.

The 1857 is probably a counterfeit (perhaps a contemporary) as I'm also seeing lightening of the metal on the worn devices, which would suggest that it's plated. 'Might want to submit that one to The Black Cabinet.

The legend on one of the 1958 obverses also looks funny to me, but for both of those, I'd need higher-resolution pictures.

With all due respect, man, your specialty-oriented outlook might be coloring your judgments a bit.

I absolutely love the 1857. To me, there's no doubt that a scrap of silver somehow got caught in the system and struck through into the planchet. Note the area of softer strike on the reverse corresponding to the strikethrough, and the sharpness of the upper edge of the wing in the silver - silver is slightly softer than copper, and I think the silver took a sharper strike than the surrounding copper, effectively reducing the pressure on the reverse. Wouldn't be surprised if the coin was slightly bowed in this area.

Keep in mind the context of this year's mintages. For 1857 only, the Philadelphia Mint was in simultaneous full production of the following:

Half Cents
Large Cents
Small Cents
Three Cent Silver
Half Dimes
Dimes
Quarters
Halves
Dollars
Every gold denomination

For some of these, it was one of the larger mintages in the series. These guys were busy. They struck 45,010,615 coins in 14 different denominations that year, using 5 different alloys.


Yeah, IMO it's not only real but utterly fascinating.

The 1857 is slabbed by PCGS and is not counterfeit.
And both the 1858's are slabbed by ANACS: again, not counterfeit.

All really nice errors.

That would be best counterfeit for the 1857 if it were a counterfeit, so is it nickel or silver determined from PCGS? Looks silver from the pictures.

Hey I won't argue with PCGS. :-) Looking at pictures on a forum is one thing, but having it in hand to examine is another (and much more accurate). I've seen something that looked similar before where copper plating on a tin fake was eaten off by some exposure to acid, and the devices elsewhere (where they were worn) were lighter due to the tin shining through.

PCGS is very thorough when it comes to unusual things and is hesitant to declare something genuine when there are irregularities, so kudos.

That in mind, aye it could be silver or nickel. Aluminum is right out as until the electrolytic process to convert aluminude into aluminum metal, aluminum metal was more precious than silver and was not used in coinage.