1898 one cent coin

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Granny
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:37 pm

1898 one cent coin

Post by Granny » Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:49 pm

I have 2 1898 one cent coins but am confused as to the H and High H . My two coins do not have any mint marks at all. So how do i classify them? New to all of this !!! PLEASE HELP!!! :D

Bill in Burl
Posts: 1457
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:41 am
Location: Golden Horseshoe, ONT

Re: 1898 one cent coin

Post by Bill in Burl » Sat Feb 04, 2012 6:19 am

All 1898 Large Cents have mintmarks .. it is a tiny one at the bottom of the reverse under the 6:00 leaf. Since this coin was contracted to Heaton (H) rather than the Royal Mint in London, it was unknown at the time whether it would have a mintmark (the Royal Mint's don't) once production began. Since it ended with Heaton, the mintmarks were hand-punched into the working dies (rather than part of the hub or matrix) and the H's are all over the place ... high, low, left, right .. touching the leaf and not touching the leaf. There are as many positions of the H as there were working dies themselves .. it all depended upon who was wielding the hammer and punch and how he felt at that specific moment. All the different placements are common .. there is no H that has any more value or scarcity than any other placement(there are minute differences in them all).
Bill in Burl

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