Please Grade And What Type 1859

It's just a narrow 9, VG-10 or so, fairly early in the mintage year, judging from the vine break at 7. It looks like a filled die on the R in Regina

plus I think there would have been rust marks on her neck but have been highly polished out

Narrow 9, VG-8

As far as a "low 9", I disagree that it was ever brought up a few years ago as a "variety", because it's not. That must have been some kinda whooped up letter that went to Sean to ever get it included into Trends. Since the 9 on every 1859 working die was handpunched, you have 9's that are all over the place ... up, down, left, right, tilted, slanted, rotated. There are low 9's, somewhat low 9's, kinda low 9's, very low 9's and every increment in-between ... and the same goes for any other position and there are over 200 of them. How low is low and how high is high? This isn't a variety at all (all varieties have markers and this doesn't). A 'low 9" isn't any harder to find than a near 9, a far 9, a high 9, or a canted 9. It it merely someone's made-up name to try to make something worth more than it actually is.

That site was put together by Dr James Haxby, with a little help from friends (primarily one in Brooklyn). It is a list of EVERY Obv & Rev working die and their marriages. In that guide, every single working die is (literally) a variety as each is minutely different than the others. It is used for die tracking and lists/ID's the escalating damage that occured to the die during its life.

I thought that when you stated "low 9", you meant the priced one listed in trends and on dealer's 2 X 2's. Dr Haxby's guide is a great teaching tool to understand the tweaks and repairs that were done to the dies during their hard life. Some of the most difficult to find (for a collector) are actually very very plain .... I call them "vanilla" 59's. I don't collect by the Haxby numbers .. I'm interested in R/P's, re-engravings, and different Obv marriages.. The 1859's are a study unto themselves. If you are into the Haxby numbers, someonme here will chime in to let you know if you are right.