The right side coin "motto over eagle" is not unique. It's actually km99. I think you are thinking of the 1866 (no mint mark) where the kmA68 was unique and the km99 was the regular issue. Note there's no S mintmark on the right side coin.
Thanks for the images, I have taken the mentioning of the S'es out of the graphic. Anyway the mintmark placement is random when it's struck, but will be seen on the bunch of coins struck with that die; hence it's a variety in a way (like the filled and clear S) type 1 and 2.
The strange thing is, that in some countries (France f.ex., but not all of them) those misplaced mint marks become a variant and in others (US f. ex. they don't). We're collecting coins, which are classified after "local" rules and not always because of objective knowledge of the minting process. Think about some of our "US overdates", which have just been defined as such by some experts, but you can't really see them?.
My understanding of the process for these coins at that time was that a mint employee was given an "S" punch and a hammer and placed the punch on the die in an approximate location below the date then hit the punch with the hammer. Some time later the employee (or another employee) was given the punch (or another punch) and a hammer and did the same thing to another die. Light hammer blow, fine S, heavy hammer blow, bold S. Of course, each die made many identical coins so each die could be considered a variety. I think we'd both go crazy trying to account for all the different types of mint marks for each year/coin.
Verweis : "rsirian1"My understanding of the process for these coins at that time was that a mint employee was given an "S" punch and a hammer and placed the punch on the die in an approximate location below the date then hit the punch with the hammer. Some time later the employee (or another employee) was given the punch (or another punch) and a hammer and did the same thing to another die. Light hammer blow, fine S, heavy hammer blow, bold S. Of course, each die made many identical coins so each die could be considered a variety. I think we'd both go crazy trying to account for all the different types of mint marks for each year/coin.
Of course you're right, but you have people like those collecting by Pos A and B , and then you have groups, wanting to see "more" (the overdates in the US). In Europe they would not have a chance to survive!
