Variety Summary

Out of the three 1857 Flying Eagle cents clashed with a different denomination, this is easily the rarest and most sought after. No uncirculated specimens are known of this variety to date. There are no known 1857 Twenty Dollar Gold obverses which exhibit clashing of a Flying Eagle cent obverse. This variety was most likely created when the Flying Eagle cent working dies were replacing a pair of Twenty Dollar Gold working dies in the coining press. This would explain why there exists no Twenty Dollar Gold coins with this clash. Most likely the Flying Eagle cent obverse working die replaced the Twenty Dollar Gold reverse working die in the hammer position. If a collar was still in the coining press over the anvil working die, a Twenty Dollar Gold working die in the hammer position would not be able to strike the lower die. With such a size difference between the cent (19 mm diameter) and twenty dollar gold piece (34 mm diameter), it is highly probable that the Flying Eagle cent working die obverse fractured the Twenty Dollar Gold working die obverse from the central force focused in the middle of the Twenty Dollar working die. These die varieties were not identified as multi-denominational clashed dies until the 1970s.

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