A Very Scarce Variety (Warning - Geeky Stuff)

bosox

Some here may know that about fifteen years ago I wrote and published the die catalog for the 1859 over 1858 Canada cents; the so-called Wide 9/8 cents. Near the end of 1858, the Royal Mint manually over-dated the remaining 1858 reverse dies to change them into 1859 dies. They did this to at least 15 reverse dies. IMO the Wide 9/8 cents are very under-rated because the over-date is very obvious (the 9 is larger and a different font than the rest of the date), each of manually over-dated dies is visibly different from the others, and their total mintage may be perhaps only 300-000 to 500,000 coins (compared to 8 or 9 million "regular" 1859 cents).

I buy the tough ones when they come along and recently bought the coin below (seller's photos). This is only the third example of this reverse die I have seen in fifteen years of looking (my catalog #RD13). I just got it in the mail. A nice, problem-free EF and a very scarce, if not rare, coin. I warned you it was geeky stuff, but perhaps no more so than some of the 8 reales over-dates.

TomB

Terrific information and thank you for the education.

Becky7474

syl

I don't find it geeky. Geeky things don't give me goosebumps but, then again, I've been collecting '59's for 30 years.