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 Replies: 13 / Views: 930 |
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New Member
United States
49 Posts |
Hi, I have this raw 1880 Shield nickel and wondering if this is a proof, or one of the rare business strikes? I've done a lot of research - but am an admitted novice and understand how huge the margin of error becomes at my level. While researching, I found several known business strike samples that have a VERY SIMILAR 'island' blob of raised metal on the reverse under and between the T and E in states. That makes me optimistic. The last two shots are graded business strikes from HA where I've pointed out the reverse 'island' I mentioned above. PS - what grade would you estimate mine to be?     |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
25049 Posts |
Yes, your coin is a business strike. There were 16,000 business strikes and 3955 proof strikes that year.
It's hard to judge the surfaces of your coin because of the glare, but I'll toss out AU to start things off.
That's a 4 figure coin at the least.
Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4395 Posts |
According to Fletcher, the proof dies in 1880 were also used for the business strikes, so die markers cannot confirm this is a business strike or proof. It does look like a business strike to me though.
Unrelated to your question, but this is also a pretty nice repunched date with the second 8 punched far south. Spindel's S1-3000 and Fletcher-2.
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Valued Member
United States
250 Posts |
Nice coin that Is a key date for this series. Pretty good value in any grade!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7616 Posts |
AU 55/58 would be my guess. Nice coin no matter what it grades.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2003 Posts |
Fantastic coin but can someone explain why the business strike is significantly more valuable than the proof despite the higher mintage of the business strikes?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
73874 Posts |
I agree with above, nice coin!  Errers and Varietys.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1464 Posts |
I agree ... very nice coin Quote:
why the business strike is significantly more valuable than the proof despite the higher mintage of the business strikes? My guess would be survival rates... proofs probably kept by collectors while business strikes circulated, damaged, spent, lost, etc... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1870 Posts |
great coin--might even be 5 figuures--
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2003 Posts |
@IGWT79, I believe you are correct about the survival rates. It appears that the business strike coins have an estimated survival of 100 in all grades while the proofs have a survival of 2700 in all grades. Hard to tell from the glare of the pics what type this is but it is most important to get this one right. This one needs a professional in hand evaluation.
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Moderator
United States
187950 Posts |
Nice example! |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
18649 Posts |
too much light glare for an accurate grade but i'd say mid AU 53 or 55
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1763 Posts |
I would suggest that it's a business strike. The rims are sharper (squared) on proofs.
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New Member
 United States
49 Posts |
@tanman2001 - I guess I need to expand my variety sources. I pretty much use variety plus references but they dont even show ANY varieties for 1880 Shield. I totally overlooked that.
I do have a great 1866 Shield FS-301 RPD with a ton of die cracks - maybe EF40 or so. I'll post that next for grade opinion.
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Replies: 13 / Views: 930 |
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Posted 11/14/2025 11:53 pm
