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1795 Liberty Cap Large Cent on eBay, Lettered Edge, larger (or thicker?) than usual
JimSheldon
Posts: 39 ✭✭
Can anyone identify this Sheldon number on eBay?
1795 Liberty Cap Large Cent Lettered Edge Large Planchet ##1404
1795 Liberty Cap Large Cent Lettered Edge Large Planchet ##1404
Item number:302391698497
Price:$99.00
Time left:14h 49m
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Comments
Just took a quick peek - S-76a?
All the Lettered Edge '95's were stuck on thick planchets.
Thank you kindly. According to Bowers there were a few "thin planchets" with lettered edges in 1795, although the majority of thin planchets have plain edges. The eBay seller replied to my email that he's seen many thick planchets but this one is "thicker and heavier than the average thick planchet for the grade".
I would be careful of raw (uncertified) "old copper" these days, There are a lot of fakes floating around, and some of them have been good enough to fool the professional third party graders. The weight of the copper planchets for these coins could vary, but I would not assume anthing these days.
Here is an Mint State S-76b, the thin planchet variety. If the S-76a that the eBay person is in fact a S-76a, the obverese and reverse will be the same. Only the planchet weight and thickness will be different.
According to Bowers there were a few "thin planchets" with lettered edges in 1795, although the majority of thin planchets have plain edges.
Yes, and they are probably scarcer than 1943 copper cents, so I dismissed this.
Apparently the weight of the thick planchets varied from 12.1 to 14.6 grams, so it would be interesting to know what this one weighs, assuming it really is on the 'heavy' side. Anything exceeding that would be quite suspect, but there is always the outside chance that a blank was cut from a thicker section, or it was overstruck on some other coin.
The obverse and reverse diagnostics do indeed match the S-76a, so if it's fake, it was produced from that coin.
The coin barely grades AG-G so it would be really weird to produce a counterfeit of a low price coin when all that trouble could make another one that hasn't been cleaned, damaged and scratched as this one has. I understand that counterfeits can be made to look worn-torn, but if that''s the case here, they're geniuses at it for a coin worth about $100.
In either case, I wouldn't pay nearly 40% of that in grading fees and postage/insurance both ways.
I sent a picture of it to a friend who used to work at PCGS. Turns out it's a rare S-76a with the 3 letters near he D in United.
Glad your friend agreed with me.....yes, it's listed as an R-5 - certainly scarce, but not rare in the absolute sense.