The Philadelphia Mint, as a result of a time-saving procedure, took reverse dies that displayed eight tailfeathers beneath the reverse eagle and stamped the redesigned seven tailfeather motif on top of it. This produced numerous variations of the 1878 silver dollar that collectors today refer to as 7/8 Tailfeather varieties.

PCGS designated the example offered here as “Strong,” meaning that at least four tips of the previous eight tailfeathers extend out as small “tongues” below the newly designed seven tailfeathers. The silver dollar shown here displays four of those tongue-like feather tips. It also displays other diagnostics such as a broken tip on Star 10, raised die-scratch lines through B and R in the obverse’s word LIBERTY, and slight doubling on the letter B in the word PLURIBUS. A few stray abrasions are visible in the left obverse fields and on certain sections of the reverse. The strike is razor sharp.

This coin offers tremendous value, considering that MS-65s cost almost four times as much.