1899 Indian Head Cent Question

This is not a Snow variety. Back then only the central design elements of a coin were on the master die. Prior to 1909, the date was then hand punched into the working die. They used either a single digit punch or a punch containing more than one digit. Many times it took more than one strike to get a satisfactory date image. This could account for the different shapes of the numbers in the date.

Jay, you have a keen eye. If you look at IHCs long enough, you'll notice the 1881 is strange. The 81 is at a different angle than the 18. This was due to the way the date punches were hubbed, an exist on coins of other series than the cent. When they made date punches, they would do so off the same hub. All they had to do was adjust the reducing lathe to create a larger or smaller date punch. So, if you have an "error" on the hub, it would get translated to all coins of that date, not just the denominational series.

Also, I wouldn't be so quick to label this as a non-variety. You can't see the inside loops of the numbers. But I don't condone trying to clean it to find out, in anyway.

Cheers.