1881 Three Cent Nickel

sumdunce

I have been looking through three cent nickels lately hoping to find a decent priced clashed example. I noticed something odd about the date on this one and decided to grab it in case it was not PMD. I just got it delivered today and I believe I found a Flynn-Fletcher: RPD-001. What do you guys think?

Obverse:

Reverse:

Close up of the full date:

Close up of the 88 in the date:

The search continues for a nice clashed example however...

LanceNewmanOCC

if you have a rose thorn and/or toothpick, i think there is something in the second 8.

this appears (along with some others) to be MUCH stronger than the FS-301.

yosclimber

@sumdunce said:
I have been looking through three cent nickels lately hoping to find a decent priced clashed example. I noticed something odd about the date on this one and decided to grab it in case it was not PMD. I just got it delivered today and I believe I found a Flynn-Fletcher: RPD-001. What do you guys think?
...
Close up of the 88 in the date:

I agree, it looks like a match to B8 / RPD-001.


from Allan Gifford's book:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/555545

The reverse die cracks are also a match - to the Gifford plate photo and to this MS-62 example.
https://www.pcgs.com/cert/24941094

It's one of the most dramatic RPDs in the series, I think.

It seems like many if not most of the coins in the early years are clashed,
so it should be a "target rich environment" for finding a dramatic clash at a good price.

It was a surprise to me how many pages Allan Gifford allocated to early unclashed die states for die pairs,
but where he was unable to find a plate coin for them.

BillJones

As a date, 1881 is common. It’s in the middle of some better dates. The date variety might be important. I can’t say.

Surfaces appear rough. That would have an effect on the value.

WAYNEAS

I like it.
Nice pick.
Wayne

ricko

Nice catch.... And a good looking coin with full 'LIBERTY'. Cheers, RickO

LanceNewmanOCC

@yosclimber said:
It was a surprise to me how many pages Allan Gifford allocated to early unclashed die states for die pairs,
but where he was unable to find a plate coin for them.

.
a testament to just how universally crazy thorough numismatist are across all time and space

oih82w8

I really like the variety. I used to have one of these varieties in PCGS MS63 CAC, but since it was not a CPG variety our host would have identified it as "RPD Minor Variety" and I started working on my "everyman" collection. I let it go.
I'll see if I can post an image from my "used to mine" folder.

sumdunce

Thank you @yosclimber for the URL for the 3 cent nickel book. I was looking for something detailing the various varieties for the 3 cent nickels. I tried finding a print version of the book but for now the URL works for me.

yosclimber

A printed copy of the book is quite hard to find. I managed to find one after a few years of checking.
So it's nice that it's available online.

A few years ago, as an experiment, I studied the 1866 die pairs in detail, using auction photos.
I wanted to see what I would find if I tried to identify as many die pairs as possible.
This contrasts with the Gifford book, which selects only RPDs, DDOs and DDRs, and groups the rest by hub type.
I found 39 different die pairs with 2 or more example coins,
and another 29 with a single example coin.
68 total. (also 13 major die states)
Gifford listed 18 die pairs for 1866 in the book.

My conclusion was that there is quite a large number of different die pairs, so it would be pretty
difficult to collect even this one year by die pair.
Not too hard to collect the photos, though!

(PCGS CoinFacts photo)

(Heritage photos)
P.S. If you want an 1866 variety to look for that is not very hard to find,
the most common one by far has a cud on top of the first I (of III) on the reverse.
It exists without the cud with 2 different obverses, and has 2 major die states with the second obverse.
(Shown are the two later die states).
Here's the 2018 thread where I first learned about it:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1006094/three-cent-nickel-opinion

sumdunce

Very interesting variety... clashed dies, die breaks, and a die chip. Looks like I now have an example coin to find in the three cent nickels. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

sumdunce

I let the coin set for a couple days in mineral oil which seems to have remove some of the crud. It got me to thinking... could mineral oil in a sonic cleaner remove the crud quicker? Would the vibrations and possible movement in the basket damage a coin?

Here is the old image of the 88 in the date:

Here is the updated close-up of the 88 in the date:

Seems to be a slight improvement. Might be worth a few more days of soaking.