Guest Blogger CJ Langbecker.
My journey with the Flying Eagle started with research of the coin itself as I wanted to put together a type set of the small cents, opening a proverbial can of worms with a coin that has a low mintage run, but hosting a sizable quantity of collectible varieties.
The Flying Eagle Cent, the first small cent of the US was minted from 1856 to 1858. 1856 has the lowest mintage of the series with an estimated 2,000 minted.
1857 was the year that carried a significant mintage numbers (17+ million) and also the year that caught my eye.
While researching the available specimens of the 1857, I reviewed several sources to get an estimate of what varieties exist, conditional rarities, survival estimates and current market value. A particular variety or set of varieties really drew my interest: the mule die clash: A mule clash would be a die clash with two different denominations. For the flying eagle there are three significant clashes: Liberty Seated 50 cent piece (Snow-9), Liberty Head $20 (Snow-7) and Reverse clash with Liberty Seated 25 cent (Snow-8).
The theory of how these muled clashes comes from die researcher Chris Pilliod, from installed dies being cycled once in the machines.
The Snow designations come from Rick Snow, a numismatic that has over 20 years of experience specializing in the Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents. Mr. Snow is a founding member and officer of the Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Collectors Society.
In a right place-right time situation, I had the opportunity to get a Snow 9 for a great price.
This was the catalyst that made me dig deeper into the varieties and also to look into the Snow designations. In the following few weeks, I was able to use my research to obtain un-attributed DDOs (Doubled Die Obverse) for the average price of a non-variety Flying Eagle.
I currently travel an unworn path; while reviewing the Snow designations, a particular variety Snow-16 has me curious. The pickup point for this variety is a very clear die chip on the body of the eagle. The enigma for this coin is that it is a die variety (technically an error on the die that continues to strike coins, thus die variety), but is not attributed by some of the grading services. The variety is not in the PCGS listings with a single one graded by NGC (VP-007). Both PCGS and NGC have several of the Snow designations (or Fivaz Stanton equivalent attribution). The question that this begs is how would one define rarity of this coin to determine value? The answer would initially be reviewing past auction results of the corresponding grades to determine market value and getting the best grade for the money.
I aim to obtain a specimen of the Snow-16 variety for further review. Could these little known varieties lead diamonds in the rough? Time will tell.
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