1893 1c MS RB

1893 Cent Production: These were made from recoined cents and two-cent pieces. Their quality is average. Many are seen with strike-through depressions caused by some substance on the planchets at the time of striking. Strike-through depressions caused by machine oil or water will leave differing types of depressions, depending on the location of the design elements. A liquid strike-through on the field leaves a small, bright, circular area. If it is on the portrait then the liquid can migrate to the extremities of the design, like the bust point or feather tips. This will show up as weakness with bright luster, but will not be weakly struck, per se.

Survivability: These are about as plentiful as other dates in the era. There was no special reason to save these for many generations after they were struck.

Collecting Challenges: Select problem-free examples with superior eye appeal.

Collecting Circulated Pieces: The optimal collecting grade for circulated coins is AU-50 to MS-63RB. These are plentiful enough that finding a problem-free example should be no problem.

Collecting Mint State Pieces: These are widely available in MS-64RB but much more diffcult in MS-65RB, at least for certified examples. A few original rolls turned up in the early 1990’s. The average quality of these rolls was MS-64RD, and they tended to have lots of liquid strike-though depressions (see Production notes, above).

Collecting Proof Issues: These are a little scarcer than the common dates, but presently are priced as if they were the commonest date. Gem full red pieces are scarce, as are cameo examples. Vivid purple-toned examples exist and are highly desired by collectors even though they typically are graded “brown.”

17 varieties are known, but are mostly minor repunched dates.