Went to a garage sale over the weekend. The person had a bag of coins, mostly Buffaloes, Lincolns and a couple of Indian Heads. Picked up the bag for $5. There were 31 coins in in, nice scrap if you want to call it. Looked at the IHC and saw this. The rough one is what I'm asking about. The collar looks to be pointed and ends well past the left of the "1". The second, the collard ends right above the "1". I can't define the "L" on it, but a pointed collar would be representative of the 1864 L correct ? Assist me with understanding the definition of "pointed" and "rounded" with respect to the 1864 L. Thanks
But I wonder, although the collar of one runs past and to the left of the "1", the real 1864 L must have the pointed collar and not be rounded like the 1864 , correct ?
Im not sure of the pointed and rounded bust has anything to do with the L-marked 1864 IHC. The two different bust type (rounded and pointed) applies to 1860 alone. From 1861 only pointed as far as I know. The L-variety only 1864 and thus only pointed variety. [emoji4] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You may wish to do some research before posting. In fact, one easy way to ID worn 64-L cents is they have a pointed bust. Take a look at the 1864-L in post #4.
The only thing that I know about your cent is that. You made a good buy. For 5$ I would have taken a chance that there was an identifiable Variety in there, are all the cents in that shape? Have you thought about the detail grade?
The Buffaloes have dates that I can make out and the Lincolns are good too. Did not think about the detail grade. I want to have someone look closer at the IHC who could tell if it is a 1864 L ?
I don't want to seem argumentative, but Dougmeister's advice is completely accurate, despite conflicting opinion. This image is from member "cti4sw" at TreasureNet: Keep in mind, for all its' perceived "rarity" there were still some five million 1864-L's struck out of a total mintage of 40 million. That's a whole lot of dies, and the dates were punched in by hand. Date locations are therefore irrelevant for attributing these - in the absence of an obvious "L," you use the tip of the bust to tell.
Dougmeister posted 1860 coins without explaining anything about what the pictures were indicative of in regards to '64-L or '64 no L.
The diagnostic I use for worn coins and bad pictures is the distance between the leftmost serif of the last A in AMERICA and the tip of the closest hair curl. On the no-L, the tip of the curl is far away and way to the left. On the with-L, the tip of the curl is close and almost in line with the left diagonal of the A. With that said, I think both of the OP's coins are of the with-L variety, the second one being particularly nice.
That is great info in comparing an "L" with non-"L". I will check on this when I get home, thank you.
Great info here! So it seems that the Redbook is correct: "The tip of the bust is pointed on the variety with L, and rounded on the variety without L." Anyone know the date of the Redbook when this "new" discovery was first printed?
I have a lincold cent that looks like the roof is floating. Missing the walls to the roof. Just floating there. Is in a jug somewhere but was just wondering is this is new news.