A Scarce Variety of a Feuchtwanger Cent
Eddi
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I am quite new to this forum but have collected coins for many years. One of my areas of interest are U.S coins, specially Early Coppers and early Dimes, and occasionally other issues as well.
About 8 months ago, prompted by a post on Feuchtwanger Cents in one of the FB groups I decided to more closely examine this example which had lain in my collection for many years. It was part of a large lot of U.S coins which I found in small show in Antwerp, Belgium in 1986, and which I had never, in all the years, paid much attention to. Upon inspection I was very surprised to find it to be a scarce variety of the issue, namely variety 3-D.
I would greatly appreciate your comments on this example, on the variety, or any comments you may have.
Thank you!
Eduard
Comments
Welcome to the forum. I do not know much about the coin you posted, but I do like it. Hopefully someone with more knowledge will comment soon.
@Eddi .... Welcome aboard.... I have not collected those coins, so know very little about them...actually, just being able to recognize what one is, is the extent of my knowledge in that area. It does seem to be a nice example... If I were going to have a specimen in my collection, that would sure qualify. Good luck with your research... Cheers, RickO
I also don't know about this coin .. but this looks to be a very nice coin.
That is a very nice piece!
It's definitely a 3-D with great detail - the obverse image could be used in a diagnostic image set. Koutsoures called it a Rarity-8 while both Rulau and Bowers have it as a Rarity-7. There were a couple auctioned at the ANA last year including Steve Tanenbaum's beautiful MS-61 which brought 14.4K. Stack's-Bowers seems to have cornered the auction market on this die combination -- they note that the 3-D was not in either the Dice-Hicks or the John Ford sales. This combo does not show up very often in auctions.
I have found the hard green verdigris especially hard to deal with when it gets into the denticles (2 o'clock & 8-9 o'clock reverse + field spots) -- hopefully someone here has a reasonable recommendation for you. With that noted, it is still a great piece which will fetch a nice four figure amount if you decide to divest.
The obverse is easy - 7 tail feathers (rather than 8) with #'s 1, 2 & 4 touching the ground; a crumbling 7 in the date; weakness / break down of the rim at 5 o'clock; a small break in the ground underneath the left loop of the snake; etc.
The reverse needs a little closer look - the O in One is low; the right bow significantly overlaps the left bow at the base of the wreath; SI of Composition are almost touched by the ribbon above them. A comparison to images of reverse dies C, E & G will eliminate those dies and firm up the attribution that it is the "D" reverse. (Only reverse dies C,D,E, & G occur with obverse die 3 -- 3C is excessively rare (R-8), 3E is obtainable (R-3) and 3G is very scarce (R-6 but also obtainable).
Thank you very much for your comments, and thank you, @tokenpro for your confirmation of the variety. I very much appreciate it.
I looked at the Stacks-Bowers auction archives and found, as you mention, the various examples of variety 3-D they have handled in the past. Seeing that, I am really glad I finally learnt it is a scarce die combination, even if it happened after so many years....
Eddi--Wow, just noticed this post. I know a fair amount about the feuchtwanger 1 cent varieties and I have researched the 3-D in some depth. There are a few others who know the series as well. This varieity was exceedingly rare until about 20 years ago when the Bowers piece came up for sale in NGC AU-53, which sold for $6900 or so. The coin was nice but considerably over-graded. At the time I thought the grade was very generous and no better than xf-40. However, in fairness, these pieces are tough to grade because much of what looks like wear is strike weakness. Since that time, I have owned and sold 3 of them and I currently own a very nice XF-45 or so. All pieces I have seen with 1 exception (other than yours) have been nice XFs at best, though one that I sold graded NGC 53. That piece was inferior to yours, IMO. They go for roughly 4-5k, but perhaps a bit less now that about a half dozen have come to market. The one exception is an NGC MS-61 that sold at a Stack's auction in August 2019 for 14.4k+. That piece is really exceptional and much nicer than any I had previously seen.
Now, as for your coin, from the pic, it looks like it has a fair amount of luster and appears exceptional, original, au-55 or thereabouts, and nicer than any I have seen (other than the previously mentioned NGC MS-61.) So, value wise, it is quite a score for you and in my opinion is probably worth 5-10k, depending upon market conditions and the number of people who actually care. After all, it is a pretty thin market, but collectors who like them, tend to like them a lot.
BTW, the piece looks to have a little verdigris or pvc on it and may benefit from conservation. Just a thought, and feel free to contact me directly if you want additional information. I am not interested in your coin as I own one, but I do know the varieties pretty well.
Tom
Tom
Great rare die pair you have there! Very nice example. As mentioned above about possible PVC, a soak in 100% acetone would be cheap insurance.
is acetone and/or mineral oil the way to go with this particular composition or with something like this, is the professional conservation the way to go? @tokenpro @TPRC
Quite an education in this thread. Interesting coin.
I think that for me the process is (1) distilled water, then (2) acetone soak, then (3) xylol. I might skip 1 and I generally don't use oils. On a coin of this value, I would be inclined to conserve professionally and have the coin attributed by Variety (NGC is the only service that currently does this, I believe). But I am no expert.
Tom
Eddi,
Great piece and one of the rare varieties, mine is a 3E, more common.
Best, SH
I agree, send it into NGC/NCS for conservation and variety attribution, and same for PCGS if they do the attribution on these, either service may work. I would not touch that piece because they are experts and will do it right. Even xylol (which is just xylene) may strip the surfaces of something you want to still have on them - let the experts do it.
Best, SH
Thank you for the additional comments. They are all very helpful.
@TPRC, I read with much attention your comments. Having read that, I am really glad that I did not lose the coin or sell the it somewhere along the line w/o knowing ever what it is!
(I am a keen EAC collector, yet somehow I managed to overlook this token in my collection for 30+ years... I guess it's because it is not copper).
I have decided to finally take the plunge and start the process of professionally grading part of my collection, including this cent. If not for me, I will do it for my family. This will not be easy due to the current situation, and the fact I live in Germany.
Great info contributions from everyone on this coin. A clinic for me. Thanks and have a good day. Peace Roy
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professional conservation followed by encapsulation. nice find you "stumbled" into and then hid from yourself!!!