1996 Far/Near 6 Nickel Comparison

2/7/9 are far 6's

I think 1 is a far.

Hi there, I'm new to this forum and came here looking for info on the 1996 near/far variety. I really don't collect Canadian coins (Norwegian is my area of focus) but back in 1983 I inherited my grandfather's nickel collection. I tried to keep it updated from year to year and even bought a 1925 to fill in the one year he was missing (he didn't have the rare 1926 variety and I'm not going to worry about that one). I put this collection into storage around 15 years ago so but recently took it out of storage. Now I'm trying to catch-up and fill in all those missing dates - only to find there were a bunch of varieties for 5 cents, the P and W and WP's, etc.

Anyways I now have three 1996 coins I've acquired and I'm trying to figure out if they are near or far - well, two actually as one of them I'm pretty sure is near.

I'll try to get photos done up - but I have to admit this is one of the most picky varieties around, I almost wonder if its worth the effort and worry. It almost seems that its minutia that someone has concocted into a variety.

Here are the images of the three 1996 coins I have. The one on the left I believe is Near-6.

As for the middle and right coins, that's where I am stuck. I bought them both online from a dealer - who sold them as Near/Far 6 but never bothered to indicate which coin was which (coins were just loose in the envelope.

Personally, both coins look the same to me - and I'm thinking Far-6.

Also somthing odd I noticed, and I do not know if it's related to the variety and it doesn't show up as well in teh image on the 3rd coin as looking at it in the real, but look at the D in Canada on the 1st and 3rd coins, looks like someting was up with the coin die and the D isn't smooth at the bottom. Both of those coins were acquired separately. I think the 1st one I got in my change a few years ago.



http://i42.tinypic.com/292lnwh.jpg

Hmm, I'll try for a different image of these (I scanned them at 1200dpi) but I wonder if the scanner glare is affecting the image. In the flesh, the first one does look closer than the 2nd and 3rd. But more I look that these images, more I think I was sold two of the same and not one of each.

EDITED LATER: No, can't seem to get a better image of these. One thing I'm noticing with these now too is the top point of the 6 on #1 and #3 seem to be different lengths in relation to the downward-straight stroke of the D above it, while #2 the top of the 6 seems to fall between the two.

Ugh... what an annoying variety to sort through