Shield Nickel - Grade? Interesting Variety?

Walkerguy21D

First, I admit the pictures are not great. The coin is more lusterous, and the speckles of haze less evident, in hand. There are very few marks on the coin. But perhaps more importantly, this coin has a lot going on around the date area....yes, there is mechanical doubling evident, which kind of mucks things up a bit. There is a shallow blob between the 7 and 3 which didn't photo well. There is the base of a narrow '1' protruding from the base of the primary '1'. There also might be the top of a '1', or something, sticking up out of the dentils below the '1'. Also, the 1 and 3 are bridged or connected. About the closest I've been able to determine is that it might be the FS 009.5, Breen #2496, found using the old edition of the CherryPicker's Guide. The coin will soon be going off for expert evaluation, but first I thought I'd post it here on the forum:

dsessom

FS 009.5 is an open 3 variety, that looks more like a closed three from the photos. Might just be the doubling though. Really need higher resolution photos to say for sure.

EagleEye

Looks like strike doubling. There may be other repunching there, but I don't see it in the image.

Walkerguy21D

Yes, there is definitely strike (mechanical) doubling present, which is kind of unfortunate, as it makes it harder to see
the repunching. I wish I could take better pics.

Walkerguy21D

Bump for the morning crew.....

shorecoll

Hard to grade from the photo, nice reverse strike, looks like a mushy obverse strike which looks like more wear than I think is present.

From the photo I'd say AU-58, but if that's just a mushy strike, it might be higher.

iceman0xh

I believe it is the FS 009.5 based on what looks like the secondary 1 coming out the bottom of the 1

howards

Lots of strike doubling visible. Photo is too blurry and not enough of a closeup to make much of a judgment on anything else.

291fifth

It's a nice 1873. In my opinion the doubling variety is minor and unimportant. This is a series that has a huge number of minor varieties. If you have to wonder about it, it is not important.