1857 FEC Flying Eagle Cent Clashed Dies - by Rick Snow

Zoins

Just ran across these cool coins photos courtesy of Rick Snow:

EagleEye

B.J. Has a nice site there but some errors, like attributing that statement of discovery to me. It was Tom DeLorey who discovered the 50 cent clash in 1977.

Rollerman

Wow! Pretty impressive. If one were to have these two coins, they could fill two holes in the type set....oh, but wait...how?
Pete

Rollerman

I just noticed that the date is backwards on both coins. Did someone make a mistake at the mint and then decided to strike the FE die over it for fun? My question is, why is the date backward?
Pete

Zoins

Thanks for pointing out that Tom discovered the seated half Rick! Great finds and photos Tom and Rick

CaptHenway

Originally posted by: EagleEye

B.J. Has a nice site there but some errors, like attributing that statement of discovery to me. It was Tom DeLorey who discovered the 50 cent clash in 1977.

Just to further clarify, well-circulated cents with the half dollar clash mark had been published in Coin World's Collectors Clearinghouse page before I started working there in 1974, but nobody could figure out what the marks were.



At the 1977 ANA convention I was sitting in the error collectors meeting with Bill Fivaz, and he was showing me coins he had cherry picked at the convention. He had a very high grade cent with the half dollar clash marks, and asked me what I thought had caused the marks. I studied it for about ten minutes, and then suddenly it flashed into my head that it was a Seated Liberty design, backwards.



I told Bill they were clash marks from a Liberty Seated obverse die, but that I was not sure if it was a half dollar die or a quarter dollar die. After the meeting Bill checked it against a regular quarter and a regular half and determined it was from a half dollar die.



So, I did not discover the variety, but I was the first one to properly attribute it.



TD

ricko

Interesting...thanks for the history... Cheers, RickO

EagleEye

Originally posted by: Rollerman

I just noticed that the date is backwards on both coins. Did someone make a mistake at the mint and then decided to strike the FE die over it for fun? My question is, why is the date backward?

Pete

These are overlay images designed to show the line-up of the clash marks.



Captn: Thanks for the history. I was at that show in Atlanta but missed the meeting.

Rollerman

Oh, sure, what a dummy I am. I should have looked at it closer, I could have answered my own question! Thanks for your patience with me.