Found A Rare Variety: 1949 "A" To Denticle Canadian Penny

[crazypennyguy]

This penny, I really lucked out on. After going to Coins and Canada, which I happened upon to find pictures that distinguished the blunt-7 1947 ML penny from the pointed-7, I looked over the varieties for the following two years. For 1948 and 1949 pennies from Canada, the difference hinges upon what the second "A" in "GRATIA" points to.

For 1948s, the second "A" normally points to a denticle. If it points between two, then it's an "Off Denticle" penny. The Coins & Canada page has example pictures of both. There's a scarcer small-dentical variety, but that Website doesn't have an explicit picture for it. The two are compared in shots near the end of this thread.

For 1949, the normality was reversed - in a big way. Almost all '49s are off-denticle. An A-to-denticle '49 is rare. It goes for twenty bucks for a Fine.

Feast your eyes on this one:

1949 A to denticle obv shrunk.jpg (142.41 KiB) Viewed 2496 times

1949 A to denticle rev shrunk.jpg (121.56 KiB) Viewed 2496 times

This expanded money shot shows that it's a 1949 A to denticle. You'll have to scroll it, but you'll see how the A points to a denticle:

1949 A to denticle rev expanded.jpg (71.22 KiB) Viewed 2496 times

Man, did I luck out! This one's elbowed out a 1940 Newfie as the most valuable coin I've found.

And to think I found it through copper penny hoarding

[mtalbot_ca]

Good eye,

I do not personnaly look for variety when I sort, however, I set aside any pennies earlier than 1960. I might just go through those just in case.

Cheers,

[Numis Pam]

* commented to find again in my posts for future use!