Shield Nickel Variety

Coxe · February 10, 2007 11:05AM

OK. It's been a long time since I did Shield varieties and I know the specialty has progressed quite a bit over the last decade. Can anyone attribute this one for me? Any ideas on the rarity? The breakis quite impressive. The reverse has some things too, but the variety should be attributable from the obverse.

Thanks!

RichieURich · February 10, 2007 11:28AM

I suggest sending a PM to Howards or IGWT. Both are Shield nickel experts.

Coxe · February 10, 2007 12:02PM

Sent PMs.

Here are a few more images, some from the microscope.

howards · February 10, 2007 6:40PM

John, got your PM - thought it would be more useful to reply in the forum.

Nobody has undertaken the monumental task of cataloguing shield nickels by die breaks. There are some cuds listed in Sam Thurman's cud book and reproduced in Ed Fletcher's shield nickel book.

Shield nickel varieties are so diverse that the focus has been on getting the doubled dies and repunched dates catalogued (along with some other weirdos). Especially for the early years (like 1868) it can be hard to find a shield nickel WITHOUT die cracks.

It does appear to me that you have an 1868 with the reverse of '68 with 4 broken letters, which is FS-002.97 in Cherrypickers' Guide.

If you are getting into shield nickels, feel free to check out the Yahoo Shield Nickels group (I'm a moderator) and/or my website at:

ShieldNickels.Net

On my website you can read about SNV (Shield Nickel Viewer), which is my attempt to work further on the problem of cataloguing shield nickel varieties. Feel free to ask any more questions if you wish.

Coxe · February 10, 2007 11:58PM

Thanks! I had forgotten to mention or show the broken bottom of the S of CENTS too, for anyone else who's interested.

I used to do this series for varieties and the DDO (and TDO!) and RPDs were outstanding. These and the 2c are very rich in varieties. I think the Shield nickel has so much that is should eventually be exhaustively catalogued by dies and by states. I am familiar with Fletcher's book. I used that and Breen back when I did these before, and Peters-Mahon when I sold. Had forgotten about the new edition of the CPG. I should go get one.

HighRelief · February 11, 2007 12:56AM

The Shield Nickel would seem like a fun set to collect with the many varieties it contains.

Putting together a set in MS63 could be done for less than $15,000.00 with the only show stopper being the 1880.

It almost seems that this could be a sleeper series in retrospect.

Coxe · February 11, 2007 1:02AM

It suffers from a boring design, along with the two and three cent coins. A date set is easily done for reasonable money but hasn't shown a lot of potential for any of those series. However, the varieties are a lot of fun and cherrypicking affordable since many of the best varieties are not found in high grades, at least not often.

howards · February 11, 2007 4:11PM

Well, I'm trying to catalogue shield nickels. There's a lot of them. :-)

The latest CPG doesn't cover nickels at all.

Shield Nickel Variety

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