The second one looks good. Seems like some complex die clashing going on. A double clash?

The best way for me to find a near/far date is to compare two coins against each other. When this is done, the difference is obvious. If you have a coin just by itself, it can be difficult to determine what it is. In the case of the images of the 1936's I posted, the thickness of the rim is an impor...

No, this is mechanical doubling. This is easy to spot. The giveaway is how thin the letters are where the doubling occurs. With a doubling due to a doubled die, the letters will retain full thickness in addition to seeing the doubling.

Nope. What you see in each image is consistent for the full circumference of each coin.

I use one of those digital microscopes sold from Hong Kong on eBay:



The optics are reasonable for the price - $50 to $70 plus shipping.

Finding doubling of any kind in the KGV V series (1922-1936) of 5 Cents coins is very difficult. But a few are out there. Below is an image of a tough to find doubled 3 in a 1923 5 Cents coin. Doubling can be seen at the bottom of the 3 -both on the outside and the inside: http://www.coinsandcanada....

Below are 4 nice but different varieties of rims for the 1955 1 cent coin:

Below is a nice example of 1936 5c Near Date and Far Date coins. The Far date has a narrow rim that meets the surface of the coin at a right angle, whereas the Near Date example has a wide rim that is filled - refered to as a concave rim. Note that for each coin, the rim is the same size for the ful...

“When is an error or mint damage considered a collectible error or variety (eg. Bugtail on the 1957 nickel or the extra waterline on the 1964 nickel)? Who determines this?” Ans: Everything ultimately starts with collectors. When collectors like an item and collect it, it becomes collectable. With th...

"Live ebay auctions are no longer. They have shut it down."

Dang. I rather liked the Live Auctions part of eBay with the exception of the amount of increased completed weekly listings. Looks like the major auctions will be going through:

http://www.icollector.com/

and through Heritage Coin.

Here are some numbers from the past 2 weeks of eBay trades of Canadian coins and related items: Items listed: 23,845 Items Sold: 15,034 Dollar Value: $472,000 USD or $588,000 CDN Of the 15,034 items sold, 90% or 13,574 sold for less than $50.00 USD. Of the 13,574 items that sold, 1,346 were ICCS, PC...

The NSF variety has a narrow rim, and the SF variety has a wide rim. The coin in your image has a narrow rim, so it most likely is a NSF variety.

Here is an interesting article about the fate of paper money.... The Fate of Paper Money By Mike Hewitt "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value - zero." (Voltaire, 1694-1778) Paper Money in Asia The first well-documented widespread use of paper money was in China during the ...

Perhaps this is a Splattered Bug Tail. Definitely something is on the tail, but it does not have the smooth lines of the 1957 Bugtail.

Excellant observations Adrenalyne. Its odd how easy they are to notice when you know where to look, and how difficult they are to spot when you don't know where to look.