1900 Indian Head Cent Repunched Date FS-302 Snow-3

Description

Carrying both the Fivaz-Stanton Cherrypickers designation FS-302 and the Rick Snow reference number Snow-3, this 1900 Indian Head Cent presents a particularly dramatic repunched date variety where the original date was punched at an upward slant relative to its final corrected position. The slanted initial impression created a distinctive pivot effect: the original 9 sits below the final 9, while the last 0 sits above the final 0, producing opposite vertical displacements at either end of the date that visually splay apart like a hinge. This pivot pattern is diagnostically significant because it demonstrates that the date logotype was tilted — not merely shifted laterally — during the first punch attempt, meaning the four-digit punch contacted the die at an angle before the engraver straightened and re-applied it for the final corrective impression. The mechanical process behind this variety involved a Mint engraver positioning a hardened steel date logotype punch bearing the digits 1900 against a softened working die blank, then striking it with a hammer to transfer the date — a procedure repeated for every working die produced that year, with each attempt subject to slight variations in angle, position, and depth. The Indian Head Cent was designed by James Barton Longacre, featuring a portrait of Liberty wearing a feathered headdress on the obverse and a wreath enclosing ONE CENT on the reverse. Struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1900, the coin was produced in bronze composition (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc) weighing 3.11 grams with a 19.05 mm diameter. The turn-of-the-century date makes this a late-series Indian Head Cent, and the dual listing in both the FS and Snow catalogs confirms it as a widely recognized and actively collected variety.

Attribution History

• FS-302, Snow-3