1867 Nickel Three Cent Piece - Atypical Die Clash ADC-3C-1867-01

Description

ADC-3c-1867-01 is an atypical die clash on an 1867 three-cent nickel, cataloged by Mad Die Clashes, with the clash on the reverse die only. Variety die specialist Billy Crawford provided all of the photos and the text. Edward Fletcher of Florida sent Crawford the coin to examine and photograph, believing it to be the 1867B03c shown on page 167 of Allan Gifford's Ultimate Guide, his book on the three-cent nickels of 1865 to 1889. Gifford describes it as showing, in mirror image above the top of the ribbon and the left inner leaves on the reverse, the inner outline of the right bow loop and the edge of the lower center right leaf from the reverse of a gold dollar, with more outlines from that gold dollar reverse spread through the reverse field. Crawford's examination found that those remnants did not come from a gold dollar. They came from the obverse working die that this reverse was paired with in the press, and the two dies were severely rotated when they struck each other. His full-coin overlay lays a rotated, transparent mirror image of the obverse over the reverse. Matching arrows show that the field behind the neck lines up with the remnants just above the ribbon, the lower back edge of the hair lines up with the left inner leaves, and the remnants in the field right of the third Roman numeral I fit the front of the neck and throat. Closer photos of Fletcher's coin show the same areas against the overlay. Crawford concludes that the coin carries single-clash remnants from the 1867 three-cent obverse working die, impressed in mirror image on the reverse with a severe rotation, and not a clash with a gold dollar.

External References