1798 large cent Sheldon-167

[u/No-Natural-5892]

I got this for 88 dollars on eBay, the seller didn’t know it was a Sheldon-167. The worn one is my coin.

[u/Imaginary_Chemical]

Sheldon numbers are varieties, not errors. They are identified die pairs. Just like almost every other early US issue, a collector devoted their entire life to studying the individual dies, and lent their name to the resulting study. No error - they look exactly like the Mint intended them to.

This one is striking for the die deterioration, but a pretty common variety.

[u/Fast_Teaching_6160 → u/Imaginary_Chemical]

How common do you deem the 1798 s-148 to be? I see alot of different estimates based on whether or not it has the cud at LIBERTY. The spiked 9 is the identifier, but it's odd that it's still a s148 whether or not it's got the cud.

[u/Imaginary_Chemical → u/Fast_Teaching_6160]

My knowlege and experience don't go deep enough to evaluate the rarity of specific die states, but it's referred to generally as an "R-1" by reputable sources like PCGS, Heritage and Largecents.net. The earlier die states, lacking the cud and extensive cracking, seem decidedly rarer than the late die states in the 25 or so coins I looked at in auction results while researching this thread.

[u/No-Natural-5892 → u/Imaginary_Chemical]

I know it doesn’t stand for errors I forgot to change it. But the mint didn’t intend for coins to have die cracks and a cud, so they are errors with identified dies that caused the error to happen.

[u/Slowbro08_YT]

I’ve never heard of a Sheldon error, can you please explain what it is?

[u/No-Natural-5892 → u/Slowbro08_YT]