Owner Comments:
Lyman Allen #2.28 (KM #163) - Mintage: 5,659,355
This coin exhibits a soft strike with little high point definition. The color and state of preservation are however spectacular. One very interesting feature of this coin is that it appears to have been struck by clashed dies. Note the outline of the male figures arm to the left of the shield on the reverse. What appears to be a raised bump in the field to the left of the top row of stars in the shield is actually the indentation created by the anvil and the mans torso from the obverse die which was transferred to the reverse. This die clash also accounts for the weakness that appears as a blurred diagonal line across the shield on the reverse. The die damaged area starts at the second star from the left in the second row of stars and travels diagonally about halfway across the shield towards the"3" in the date. Given the level of obverse die image transferred to the reverse die, I would have expected to see an equal amount of image transfer from the reverse die to the obverse. This does not appear to be the case though, so I suspect that the obverse die was more noticeably damage by the clash, and was replaced with a new obverse die.
As of this revision, the combined NGC and PCGS population at this level is 2 with none finer. This coin is the finest graded by NGC (1/0). This coin was probably part of the "Just Having Fun" collection.
Varieties
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ALLEN-2.28a - M/M Over mint mark. This variety is not recognized by either NGC or PCGS.
Date acquired: 6/23/2013 (Already graded by NGC. Based on the old style NGC holder, it was probably graded in the early 1990's.)
Rev. 9/24/2020