1916 Two Feather

1916                       Two Feathers                               FS-402                          395248

I purchased this coin raw on Ebay. Subsequently, I submitted it to PCGS. They graded it AU50 and attributed it Two Feathers variety. I have several other 1916 2F varieties, all purchased raw on Ebay. One of these grades about the same as this one but is a later die state coin. One of the images below is of this coin. The 1916 2F is not a difficult variety to find unattributed.

The 1916 Two Feather is a “pure” 2F. There are at least three pairs of abraded dies with the third feather completely missing. My PCGS coin has relatively smooth abrasion marks (on left below) while the raw coin’s are more apparent (on right). Both also exhibit a Wipe of die scratches across the coin. The Wipe is stronger on this raw coin, but still is lighter than on my 1915 2F’s.

At least one Two Feather dies also has a Missing Initial. This variety is known as a Two Feather No F. If submitted to PCGS, I don’t know whether such a coin would be attributed as an FS-402 Two Feather, or as an FS-401 No F

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Obverse Clues

Because there are multiple Two Feather dies, it is not possible to identify any specific clues common to all of them. The ones I’ve seen do have an Obverse Wipe, but the Wipe varies in strength. It also is unlikely all Two Feather dies have a Wipe.

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Reverse Clues

Again, nothing specific. Some have EPU die clashes, some don’t. At least some have reverse Wipes.

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What to look for

As with most 2F varieties, the missing feather is the feature to look for.