1857 FE CENT ?

bigtonydallas

I just bought an 1857 Flying Eagle cent in XF. The coins looks to have a filled die on the obverse on the eagle's tail feathers. Also on the reverse opposite the eagles tail lookl like another filled die on the grape vine leaves. The link to the auction is here. Would this make it more valuable as a double error? If so, by how much? Could it be some ohter error?

Thanks.

MICHAELDIXON

Did you see the rim damage on that coin????

nccoin

Not sure about the errors but it doesn't surprise me that Klondike did not point out the rim damage, and probably tried to hide it as best they could. This seller is bad news.

Conder101

Not filled dies, just strike weakness. The coppernickel alloy was very hard and they had a lot of trouble getting the designs to strike up, especially the tail feathers where they cross the wreath on the other side.

BowTieCoins

Maybe weakness on obverse caused by the start of a cud on reverse. I see a line headed towards the rim.

darktone

The rim "damage" appears to be mint made to me. Looks more like an AU coin to me if there is no signs of cleaning. mike

bigtonydallas

The rim damage does look like it was caused at the mint. I am going to send it to CONECA when I get a chance. I have sent Rick Snow an email but he is probably in PA.

Thanks.

BillJones

The weaknesses that you see on this coin are prime examples of why the Flying Eagle design was discontinued after just two years of production for general circulaiton. The metal flow was not consistent enough to produced well struck coins on a regular basis. The weak spot you see on the eagle's tail is quite normal and well as the weak spot in the wreath on the reverse. Sometimes the "ONE" in "ONE CENT" is weak also.

Aside from the strike problems, you get a pretty nice coin. It would be better if the coin were fully struck, and the weak strike lowers the value. If the strike had been stronger you would have more bidders butting heads with you over this piece.

bigtonydallas

UPDATE:

I just got this coin back from Rick Snow and he states that the coin was not weakly struck but that the weakness of the details was caused from some liquid or oil that was on the die or planchet.

FYI.

shylock

Tony - thanks for the followup. It's tough to distinguish between the striking problems of these and the poor quality control that allowed foreign material to build up in the dies, and I'm sure some FE's exhibit a little of both. It would be interesting if Rick could describe the difference here. I'm guessing he called this an oil filled die because the weakness only appears in one isolated area while the rest of the design, including AMERICA right next to the tail feathers, looks normal. There also appears to be a distinct line between where the tailfeathers are struck normally and then lose all detail -- striking weakness would show a more gradual change.