1883 Liberty Dime - No Reverse? Pic included..

nOoBiEeE

I am no expert here so I need your help. I bought this coin for $2 bucks at a coin shop today for the reason that you see in the pic. So, 2 questions for a newbie,

1. What is the cause of that?

2. Is this a normal thing or pretty rare?

Pics aren't that good but hope you get the idea.

nOoBiEeE

Geez, this thread sunk to page 2 quick...

Goldfinger

That's an interesting error, but it leads me to suspect that the coin isn't genuine. I'd guess that this kind of error coin would cost more than $2, but that's all it is - a guess. Does anyone else know?

ldhair

It looks like a jewelry piece. Solder of the rev?

ealandg

Sigh... I'm afraid that I have seen something similar to this before. In my case, the coin was resting on a PVC flip for many years. I have a Small Motto 1864 2 Cent with a lovely red AU obverse and a hideously corroded reverse.

I'm not saying this is what happened to your coin, but it looks like some kind of damage to me rather than an error.

Barry

It appears that the reverse was ground off mechanically, and subsequently the coin was damaged further. Lots of Seated Dimes were used to make Love Tokens. For example, this one currently on Ebay (no, not mine).

nOoBiEeE

Thanks guys, figures as much.

Conder101

First question that has to be answered is "What does it weigh?" My first thought is that it looks like a counterfeit.

lordmarcovan

Barry's theory would be my pick. Possibly planed off for a love token. I had a nickel three cent piece once with the obverse planed off. Just a blank disc on one side and a roman numeral III on the other. Kinda cool, really. Since nobody got around to making it into a love token 100 years earlier, I took it to a jeweler and had 'em put a friend's initials on it, then gave it to him. (Not that I was askin' him to be my sweetheart or anything, but I thought it would be a cool freebie to toss in when he bought my old Seated Liberty type set).

Hey, for two bucks, I'd have bought your coin, there, myself, even if the missing reverse was damage (which it almost certainly is). Kinda hard to pass up something like that. You could get a jeweler to polish off that reverse to smooth it out, and have 'em engrave your initials or something on it, or make your own modern love token. There's no crime in doing something like that to an already damaged coin. Heck, it would make an interesting conversation piece, whether you did that or left it as is.

Conder101

LM, ordinarily I would agree with you that it was an unfinished Love token, but did you look at the picture? I would expect if the reverse was planed or ground off that the coin would be smooth on that side. This one is not. It shows all kinds of voids like the bubbles in a poured casting. Like metal that was just poured into a one sided mold.

millennium

Looks like an attempt at counterfeiting....The obverse looks rough, like it was sand cast.

nOoBiEeE

Thanks for all the replies, here are some close up shots through a 5x loop. I wonder if I could take it to let's say a local PCGS or NGC dealer and see what they say or maybe just trow it on Ebay for 1 million dollars ...

RGT

Looking at the close-up, it looks like something besides silver is on the reverse. Notice how the color near the rims looks right but the center part that's rough is a dull shade of grey. Is there a chance this is some sort of cement used to glue the coin to something and it's covering the whole reverse? It's hard to tell without the coin in hand.

Barry

I agree with RGT. In the depression, the suyrface underneath looks smooth, as do the rims. Either solder, or some other bonding material covering a ground-flat reverse.