1800 Draped Hair Cent Question

coachleonard

I have an 1800 Draped Hair Cent where you can see a '9' within the last '0' in the date-- from what I gather, this over-struck date is not too uncommon, or at least doesn't command anywhere near what a 1799 Draped Hair Cent would command. But don't I, in a sense, have a 1799 Draped Hair Cent?

Rittenhouse

No. There are 4 known overdate dies. 2 have 1800/1798 and the other 2 are 1800/179. You likely have one of the 1800/1798 varieties. The 8 is very faint in the last 0 and could look like a 9. So, you could claim to have a 1798, but since none of the dies actually struck 1798 cents, that's a bit weak.

coachleonard

Darn!
But thanks for the information!

Conder101

Actually there are six overdate dies in 1800 and they were used to create eleven different overdate varieties that year. Only one of these dies has a digit in the last cipher and as Rittenhouse says that digit is an 8. (In fact all of these dies were created in 1798 but the final digit 8 was not punched into the other five dies.) If the 8 is visible in the last 0 then it is worth checking a little further. That obv was used to create four different varieties S-190, 191, NC-5, and NC-6. S-191 is common, S-190 is slightly scarce. NC-6 has fewer than 10 known and is a $4000+ coin, and NC-5 is still currently unique. Copper quotes guesses it at $20000. (Of the other 7 overdates three are common, one is scarce, one is rare, one has about six known, and the last one has only two known.)