Sweden 5 ore 1883 small S

[mrbadexample]

I noticed my coin has a small S compared to others seen online:

My coin.
Random ebay coin.

Any thoughts?
MBE

[brandm24]

The S's look to be about the same size to me but it's hard to be sure. Unfortunately, the entire wording contains only a single S so there's nothing to compare it to.

I don't know how the letters and numbers were punched into the die on these Swedish coins, but if they were individually punched the difference might have been the result of a misplaced letter. Not unusual on older US coins, especially on mint marks.

Bruce

[FosseWay]

I'm not seeing much of a difference in size either, but there is a visible difference to the shape of the top curve of the S. The upper coin has a squashed top to the S, whereas on the lower, the upper curve is a mirror image of the lower.

I've no idea why this should be, especially since this text is constant across the series from the introduction of the krona in 1873 until Norwegian independence in 1905. It's not like a date digit or mintmark that varies from time to time or place to place. 

[brandm24]

Yes, I see the more open S on the second example. Even though the text is constant across the series, there could be slight variations in the individual letters from die to die. I suppose this could make for a unique series of varieties on the 1883 5 ore coins. Does anyone know if there are documented varieties of this particular date?

Bruce

[FosseWay]

Does anyone know if there are documented varieties of this particular date?

There's nothing about any varieties in my copy of Tonkin's Myntboken (although my copy is from 2011), nor in the massive new Sveriges Myntbok 995-2022. The latter does mention an overstrike date for 1883 (3 over 8 ).

[brandm24]

Thanks for the information. Doesn't look like a 3 over 8 overstrike, so maybe the difference here isn't considered a variety or just hasn't been noticed yet.

Bruce