1867 5c Rays PR

Key to Collecting: The 1867 With Rays nickel is basically scarce, and it has been recognized as such for a long time. However, in the modern era of emphasis on condition rarity, and with relatively few truly choice high-grade examples around, this variety suffers from lack of publicity. Quality is a problem when you find one. As with the 1866, there are usually problems with sharpness, and many coins are dull. Over a long span of years, I have seen only a handful of coins that truly combine a high grading number with sharply struck details and good eye appeal. A choice Mint State 1867 With Rays is, in a word, a sleeper. However, coin for coin, the 1867 With Rays has a higher average quality than do the nickels of 1866.

The 1867 With Rays Proof (illustrated above) is a classic rarity. Probably no more than several dozen or so are known; there are some prooflike Mint State coins that have been mistakenly called Proofs. The mintage is unknown. Students of the series have given many opinions, including the statement that no Proofs at all were struck until several years later. John Dannreuther, who has studied the die technicalities, has demonstrated that Proofs were struck on several runs. Per the same authority, an estimated 15 originals were made in 1867, plus perhaps three or more times that many were made on at least five later production sequences.2 Likely, dealers with close connections to the Mint—John W. Haseltine being the prime example—simply ordered more Proofs as needed for store stock. The depth and breadth of such restriking is just now beginning to be appreciated, with new leading-edge scholarship by Dannreuther and others.

For Proofs, quite a few grading events (not necessarily different examples) have been reported by the grading services—numbers that would have been impossible to believe a few decades ago.

Characteristics and Appearance: Usually fairly well struck, better than the typical 1866 of this type. Points to check for weakness include the horizontal lines in the shield and, on the reverse, the centers of the stars. Nicks on areas that are lightly struck are likely from the surface of the original planchet. All circulation strikes have Reverse Style B, as do Proofs.

Mintage and Distribution Notes: The widely published mintage figure for this issue is an estimate by R.W. Julian, per this commentary contributed to the present work:

The coiner notified Mint Director William Millward that he proposed to change the design on February 1, 1867, but we do not know if this was done on that exact day. As a result the best we can do is estimate the number of Shield nickels with rays struck in 1867 at 2,019,000, the number coined in the month of January. This leaves 28,890,500 as the number of 1867 nickels coined without rays on the reverse. The average for the last 11 months of 1867 is a very creditable 2.6 million pieces per month, which was the best monthly average (in a given year) until 1906, nearly 40 years later. It also shows the great public demand for the new coin.

Repunched Date (Nickel over Dime Logotype)—FS-301, F-08. The most dramatic variety shows the final date of 1867 flanked by a 1 to its left and a 7 to its right. Howard Spindel, in the Shield Nickel Viewer, confirmed that this is a Small Date (regular for nickels of this year) logotype punched over a Large Date intended for a Liberty Seated dime. The telltale overlay is shown at right.3

Repunched Date—Several varieties of repunched dates are known. The Fivaz-Stanton and Fletcher texts give descriptions, as does the Shield Nickel Viewer. Another interesting variety, FS-303, F-02, seems to have as an underdate an impression from a smaller-date logotype with a more delicate 7, but it is usually attributed simply as a repunched date.

Misplaced Date—On FS-304, F-01, URS-1, the base of the 1 in 1867 appears outside the ball at lower left. As Fivaz and Stanton note, “To date, this is still a unique example. Hundreds of dedicated Shield nickel enthusiasts are looking for this variety.”