Bought an interesting 1856 Flying Eagle cent variety.

Lakesammman

If your into varieties, this is one of the "major reverses" for the year 1856 (High Leaf vs. Low Leaf). There are 5 different reverses for the year. The low leaf reverse places the time of striking most likely in the year 1858.

There are 10 varieties of the 1856 FE cent. The most common varieties are the S3 "original" and the S9 "restrike". One of the less common is this coin, the S4, a R7 variety with a total pop. estimated to be 15 or so. This one is PCGS P63.

The keys for the S4 include a die line "spike" at the base of the U in UNITED. The date punch looks to have been tilted so that the 1 is very strong, the 6 weak. On the reverse, the left leaf is below the CENT "baseline" and there is no centering dot. The relief of the reverse, especially ONE CENT, is very shallow.

wingedliberty

Excellent information thanks., My dream is just one of these, regardless of variety, but its great to know that there are so many interesting ones. I have Rick Snow's book on the subject and its very informative. I always enjoys issues of the Longacre Ledger.

boiler78

Lakes- Do the coins have to be in relatively high grade to determine the die variety? Are you planning to collect them all?

Lakesammman

Not them all, but wanted to have the major varieties for the year. To me they are the S1, S3, S4 (or S10) and S9.

Dennis88

Those are really great coins you have!!!!!!

Dennis

Pushkin

Nice going and congratulations Lakes!!!

That S-4 is really neat - excellent catch.

Lakesammman

Pushkin:

Thanks - have been looking for that one for a few years!