Empire Coins

[Citizen H]

Following on from a recent post that was about Rupees, I revisited my hoard of Empire Coins and thought this would be worthy of a share,

a Victorian 1886 Canadian 5 Cents that has a date No' 8 below the main date No' ...how did this happen ? 

 

[Coys55]

It's certainly strange, but I wonder if it really is an 8 and not something else. 

 

FWIW I think that the top 8 has a smaller top loop (as expected), but on the lower one both loops look equal size.