1869 Three Cent Nickel FS-302

[minterrors 0]

 

I was meandering around a popular auction house a little while ago looking for Re-punched date (RPD) Indians or Shield Nickels without much luck. A three cent nickel shows up in one of those auction house style ads. It had 15 minutes to go. I decided to take a quick look at the coin to see if it had an Overdate or RPD.

 To me it looks like the 1869 Three Cent Nickel FS-302. The coin may be a XF/AU. I can see LIBERTY pretty clearly with the photos that were  provided.

  It was set up as a bidding war thing, BUT I didn’t want to start a bid war, so I signed in and put in my bid. I waited until time almost expired before I hit the bid button. No problem, I won it with dollars to spare.

 Looking at the photos on a popular auction house, all the of “United States of America” looks like machine doubling. Ahhhhh, Longacre was a player in creating this coin. That can explain everything. I will have to research the coin to see if they re-punched just the date or the entire stinking die. Bets are they did the date and the rest is some widespread machine / Longacre doubling. The PCGS example has a lot more wear on the reverse than the coin I just purchased off a popular auction house. 

It looks like it has some “drama” to it, and that’s the reason I went for the coin. I can see the secondary punching that is to the south of the primary. While bidding was active, I had to ensure the 1869 had a valid RPD for this coin, and it does.

 

One down, billions of coins to look at, laugh at, and I buy just a few unique ones.

 

Obverse looks XF, I cannot tell if LIBERTY was simply a weak strike or if it is wear. There is wear on the hair, unless the photo simply drowned out all of the details.

 

The reverse of this 1869 Shield Nickel, FS-302 looks Uncirculated. There might be a touch of wear on the III symbol. Let's conservatively give the reverse a AU-58, although I could see this reverse as a lot higher, but since the obverse looks slightly circulated, it will probably come back as a AU coin.

 

The only price at PCGS is for a MS64 version of this coin, and that is going for $375.00.  I would have to guess, but this coin can probably fetch $70.00 to $90.00. 

A decent find for a last second research and quick bid.