| Author |
 Replies: 16 / Views: 3,907 |
|
New Member
United States
3 Posts |
I'm not an expert on error varieties, so am hoping someone here may be able to help me out. Thanks in advance! I have recently come across a Flying Eagle cent without a date. I have a number of Flying Eagles in my (small) collection in a variety of conditions, all of which have at least a somewhat readable date. The coin in question doesn't appear to be a result of wear...the rest of the coin has nice detail. I scanned the coin (below), but the result of the scan is less than desirable. My camera with a macro setting is currently out of commission, so the scans below are unfortunately the best I can do for now. The detail and quality of the coin, when viewed by the eye itself, is much more impressive. The outline of the eagle is sharp, some decent feather detail is apparent, as is the eye and part of the beak. Basically, I'd put its grade in the VG8-F12 range. The rim is intact and the place where the date would be is completely smooth, like the rest of the field. There's no indication whatsoever that anything ever resided there. Also, as you can see from the image, the tip of the beak is clipped off. The word "United" is weak in the you and the ED. Looking at the AMERICA, my guess is the coin is a 1858 large letter variety. (?) Like I stated earlier, I'm hardly an expert in coins, let alone error varieties. Any light you can shed on this coin would be a huge help...and much appreciated. Also, any information on how an error of this variety can affect the value of the coin is also appreciated. Like most of you, I'm not interested in coins purely for the money, but it can be a nice side-effect of collecting.   |
|
|
|
Moderator
 United States
16679 Posts |
The date area could have been Struck Through Grease. That would explain the missing date. Welcome to the CCF! swcoin.ecrater.com
Edited by vermontensium
02/06/2011 1:56 pm
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1388 Posts |
nice pick up  |
|
Valued Member
United States
424 Posts |
I think I can make out 1857..  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1424 Posts |
|
|
New Member
 United States
3 Posts |
Thanks all for your insight. bmanofnbc -- Don't get my hopes up! Funny Money -- I kind of see the horizontal line that you may be referring to that looks like the top of a 7. Looking closer at the original scan (and playing with the contrast to accentuate it) I don't think it fits the characteristics of a Flying Eagle's 7...but it's close. The angle of the very faint line seems a little too horizontal and the right side seems to round off instead of come to a point. Looking at the original coin it's really tough to pick up any such indications of these faint lines. It's really tricky...thanks for raising my interest. I'm uploading a larger view, with bumped up contrast. And the second image is a different scan of the same coin, just to see if a slightly different angle reveals anything. Hmmm...this is a good mystery. I need to examine the actual coin more.   |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1424 Posts |
sorry, I was just funnin' with you Dumbledore.
You could try placing a sheet of paper over the coin and rubbing a pencil to shade over the date area and see if anything shows up. Sort of like they do at "The Wall" memorial to copy the names.
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
The copper nickel alloy was kind of hard for the mint to strike up and I have seen a fair number of pieces with weak dates. Add a little grease and it isn't surprising that the date may disappear completely. It isn't a spectacular enough error to really have a premium, so then you have the fact that it has a missing date and you have just turned off a lot of the non-error collectors. End result is that it most likely has a lower value.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
3660 Posts |
Seems to me (from the picture) that maybe the rim in that particular area is worn more than elsewhere..... maybe a date is simply worn completely away? I think that I see a head just above the invisible date.... could it be Casper?  |
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
The rim should be protecting the date. To wear the date down completely the rim would also have to be worn down completely or at tleast the bases of the digits still be visible.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
3660 Posts |
Agreed, but does not the rim in that particular area look worn down more so than in other areas of the rim?
|
|
New Member
United States
3 Posts |
The scan really isn't a good judge for the wear on the coin...on the actual coin itself the bottom rim is more distinct than the image, with a small bead of the lip of the rim remaining. There's some wear on the lower portion, but definitely not enough to completely eliminate the date.
Another thing I just now noticed...the reverse is rotated about 5 degrees.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
3660 Posts |
Obviously as Conder says then.
|
|
Valued Member
United States
186 Posts |
Did anybody notice that the eagle's beak is.... well... not there?
|
|
Pillar of the Community
3660 Posts |
Isn't that done when the birds are fairly young so they don't peck each other?
|
| |
Replies: 16 / Views: 3,907 |
Posted 02/06/2011 2:02 pm
the weakness in the legends points to that too. If 
