1868 Shield Nickel FS 905 Or 906?

I love threads like this which ask about stuff I know nothing about.

Any grade estimate based on such small images can only be a rough guess, but this one sure looks to be no worse than a high AU. As regards variety - 1868's varieties, FS-901 through 906 - appear to be differentiated by the quantity of broken letters appearing on the single common hub. They start with FS-905, which is the unbroken original, and then go FS-101 through 906 (an added, transitional stage between 905 and 901). The first letter to break is the "C" in "CENTS," which defines FS-901.

I'm not seeing that letter broken. You'll have to be the judge. If it's unbroken, the coin is FS-905 which is considered the toughest of the varieties. If it's only slightly broken, it's FS-906 which is tough on its' own. I'm not perfectly clear about the exact differentiation between the two.

Courtesy of the Heritage Auctions archive, here's one that PCGS called FS-906:

That was one of my first stops in the research process, amida17. However, he doesn't even mention FS-906 (must have been added since the page was written) so I had to rely on Heritage and posts from other fora for that one. It leaves me thinking that 906 is a judgment call.

Yeah I noticed that. Not knowing this series well I tend to agree with you.

I have the 5th edition (I thought that was the newest edition, maybe I am wrong) and it is listed on page 216. It doesn't list XF-45, but it would be somewhere between $35 and $75. These numbers seem low, but the FS-901 doesn't carry much of a premium since almost half of all the reverse of 1868 varieties are FS-901.

I concur. Nice coin!