1868 SHIELD 5 CENT?

bigtonydallas

I have picked up a new 1868 shield 5 cent. I have misplaced my chery pickers guide.. If I remember right there is a reverse die that is rare on the 1868. Does anyone have a picture of this page of the cherrypickers guide?

Thanks,

GaCoinGuy

I am scanning it as we speak............theres like 12 pages of 1868 shield nicks in here. The first couple pages talk about the reverse dies.

GaCoinGuy

Scans not working for some reason. Do you have a fax number I can fax the pages too?

airplanenut

You lost the cherrypicker's guide? I thought you were the cherrypicking god

bigtonydallas

No I have misplaced it!!!!! lol It is probably in the back seat of my truck. I'll post a picture later.

bigtonydallas

The top star on the reverse points to the last S in STATES and not the E. The other star points to the M in AMERICA and not between the A & M. IS this the rare variety? Does anyone know? Is there a value for this reverse die?

Conder101

The 1868 rev dies are supposedly from 3 different reverse hubs called Hub of 67, Hub of 68, and Hub of 70. This is Hub of 67

Note the top star points at the right foot of the E and counting it as 1 and going clockwise star 3 points between AM. This is the most common reverse with somewhere around 75 - 80% of the coins having it.

This is Hub of 68

Star 1 points at the serif of S and Star 3 points at the left upright of the M. This hub was only used in 1868 and accounts for 20 - 25% of the nickels for that year.

This is the Hub of 70

Star 1 points to the right edge of the serif of the E (Similar to hub of 67) and Star 3 points at the left upright of M (like Hub of 68). Appear (if it does) on less than 1% of the 1868 nickels. Almost all of the 1869 - 1883 nickels use the Hub of 70. A very few 1869 nickels may use the Hub of 67.

So the two to really keep an eye out for are 1868 Hub of 70 and 1869 Hub of 67.

Your coin is a Hub of 68.

Trime

Good post an excellent response from Conder 101.
I went to my inventory and found an 1868 MS 65 shield 5C that was not checked for reverse hub variety. Next trip to the bank will satisfy my curiosity.
I found the coin picture on my computer archives. Hub 68 Too bad!
I edited my post to correctly grade the coin as a MS65 not 68 (typo).

Conder101

Sorry, something I should have mentioned in the first post.

The Hub of 68 for somereason did not hold up well and almost immediately started breaking up. Dies from this hub almost always show broken letters. On the picture I posted in the first post you can clearly see that the top of the D in United, first S in STATES, bottom of C in CENTS, and bottom of S in CENTS are broken away. I believe this hub may show as many as 5 broken letters. Since the hub broke so quickly, a coin with Hub of 68 that doesn't show any broken letters is rare, but as far as I know does not yet command a premium.

Trime

Conder 101 said:
The Hub of 68 for some reason did not hold up well and almost immediately started breaking up. Dies from this hub almost always show broken letters. On the picture I posted in the first post you can clearly see that the top of the D in United, first S in STATES, bottom of C in CENTS, and bottom of S in CENTS are broken away. I believe this hub may show as many as 5 broken letters. Since the hub broke so quickly, a coin with Hub of 68 that doesn't show any broken letters is rare, but as far as I know does not yet command a premium.

My observation from my example is:
My 1868, rev hub'68 has multiple die cracks obv and rev but only the lower portion of the C in cents has been lost; the remainder of the legends are intact. I guess this would be an interesting coin for die state analysis.

bigtonydallas

Does this 1868 have the 70 rev hub?

Bochiman

BigTony, thanks a lot

I thought what you got was so cool that I just had to send email to Coinguy1 asking him to look for one for me...that predates my birthyear by 100 years which I want to have a set of (1868 coins).

bigtonydallas

If the die had so many breaks, wouldn't we see a cud and not part of the letters missing?

bigtonydallas

ttt

Conder101

You have broken letters because the hub was breaking up. Remember the hub has the image raised just like on the coin so if raised areas of the hub such as the tops or bottoms of the letters break away, they will not be there to be impressed into the die and coins struck from those dies will show the same broken away letters.

bigtonydallas

Ah so the HUB had problems not the DIES themselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course the dies made from these damaged HUBS would have the same problems! Thanks!