Numismatic Who-ville
ColonialCoinUnion
Posts: 10,087 ✭✭✭
I just received my Heritage catalog and was flipping through it when I came across lot 5367, a 'Scarce and Important' 1914/3 Buffalo nickel. Heck, Heritage has 3 of these landmark items in the current auction.
They've even included a magnified photo of the affected area on one of them, apparently so the reader can behold this spectacular numismatic rarity in its full glory. Which I did. Or tried to. I stared at it for a good long time and I am now absolutely convinced that this is some kind of large scale conspiracy to sell what must have been a glut of plain old 1914 Buffalo Nickels sitting in some enterprising dealer's inventory for about 18 months.
Can anyone see this overdate? Is it just me? Does this not vaguely remind you of the scene in Horton Hears a Who when only HE can hear that tiny trumpet?
Union
They've even included a magnified photo of the affected area on one of them, apparently so the reader can behold this spectacular numismatic rarity in its full glory. Which I did. Or tried to. I stared at it for a good long time and I am now absolutely convinced that this is some kind of large scale conspiracy to sell what must have been a glut of plain old 1914 Buffalo Nickels sitting in some enterprising dealer's inventory for about 18 months.
Can anyone see this overdate? Is it just me? Does this not vaguely remind you of the scene in Horton Hears a Who when only HE can hear that tiny trumpet?
Union
0
Comments
Cameron Kiefer
The good news is it should be easy to cherry pick the 1914/3 because even some looking right at the date will miss it.
I don't - I avoid the stock market. However, that's a pretty marginal example for a numismatic discussion.
Most varieties that can barely be seen don't bring big prices. Eventually, this variety's price will fade away until it's as prominent as the underdigit in that picture......
<< <i>Why own stocks then? >>
If you insist you can take physical possession of the actual stock certificates.
I have seen examples where the top bar of the 3 is convincing, but I have also seen ones with just a trace, ones that are VERY questionable, and of course this overdate comes on more than one mintmark. I strongly suspect that unlike the other 20th century overdates, this one is NOT the result of a doubled die, but rather created by dies created from a doubled HUB. In that case there are many different overdated dies which show the overdate with varying strengths depending on how well it was hubbed, the condition of the hub, and much polishing the individual die has received. I think if we go looking for other die markers we will find that there are several different 14/3 varieties and that the overdate is not as scarce as it is made out to be. (Kind of like the 16/16. It is more common than people realize. I once turned up four of them at one midsize show. That was back when they were first becoming known and when one was sold it was often listed as "One of only six known". Right six known and I locate four at one show.)
in fact, to take it 1 step further, you just KNOW someone's gonna discover, say, a 1926/5, etc etc. mark my word. & pcgs/ngc will slab it.
K S
The underdigit is bold and clear on the slab insert. That should suffice for quite some time.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
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