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The 1943 Lincoln Penny (Cent) and Others!

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

There are some rare pennies (cents) that are struck on the wrong planchets. A planchet is the little disk of metal that is prepared to be struck into a coin. Sometimes a mix-up occurs that causes the wrong planchets to be struck into coins for a certain year. In 1943, for example, pennies (cents) were supposed to be struck on planchets made of STEEL, and PLATED with ZINC. Some leftover planchets from 1942 made of BRONZE accidentally got mixed in with the new, at the time ZINC-COATED STEEL planchets and were mistakenly struck into coins.

That being said, many questions arise about the 1943 dated cents. You should know what is normal and what is unusual on these coins and coins of other years that may be struck on the wrong planchets.

NORMAL 1943 Lincoln cents are made of STEEL plated with ZINC. NORMAL 1943 cents are grey in color unless they are rusted.

1943 Lincoln Cent - Steel Plated in Zinc - NORMAL COMPOSITION

1943 P, D or S cents struck on BRONZE do exist but are extremely rare. This picture shows you the date on a genuine 1943 S Lincoln Cent that was struck on a Bronze Planchet.

1943 S Lincoln Cent - Struck in Bronze

Many are counterfeited. People take normal STEEL cents and plate them with COPPER in order to make them look like a cent struck in BRONZE. People also take 1948 dated cents and alter the date by removing the left side of the numeral 8 and leaving behind what looks like a 3 as the last digit in the date.

A copper plated forgery of a 1943 Bronze cent

There are some 1944 Lincoln cents that were mistakenly struck on leftover ZINC -COATED STEEL planchets from 1943, so a NORMAL 1944 is BRONZE colored while there are some rare 1944 cents that are grey in color. Again, there are numerous counterfeits done by plating a normal 1944 cent.

In 1975, NORMAL cents were struck in BRONZE. The Mint did experiment, however with ALUMINUM and struck a few examples dated 1975 in Aluminum but no coins in that metal were to leave the Mint. Samples of these ALUMINUM cents were given to some members of Congress as examples to examine and an unknown, extremely small number that should have been returned to Mint officials escaped but rarely surface. So a white 1975 cent bears further examination but is still probably a plated forgery.

Part way into 1982, the composition of cents changed so some 1982 cents are made of the traditional material which is a copper alloy (BRONZE) and some are made of a mostly zinc core that is plated with a thin layer of copper.

From 1982 to the present, cents are made of the COPPER-PLATED ZINC material. On occasion, unplated planchets are struck and a light gray colored coin is the result. They need to be carefully examined as it is easy to remove the copper plating and coins of this date range that have been tampered with are often encountered. High school science experiments use these cents and there are experiments done that remove the copper and the altered coins can end up back in circulation.

On a cent dated 1964 or earlier, it is possible to actually have a “silver cent” (remember that “white (light gray) cents” are normally steel or zinc and not really silver) . On rare occasion, a planchet intended to be used to make a dime gets into the press and is struck by the dies intended to produce cents. A true “Silver Cent” is the result.

If that happened today, a cent would be grey in color as our dimes (for circulation) are made of two layers of nickel bonded to a copper core.

Posted in Collecting, Error Coin, Mystery Coin, Novelty Coin | Comments Off

A Question About an Un-Plated Lincoln Cent

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

I found a penny (cent) dated 1991 D that should have the copper plating on it. This one seems to have the plating missing. Did I find a valuable coin?

Part way through 1982, The United States Mint changed the composition of cents to a copper-plated zinc. The core of the coin is composed of 98.2% zinc and 0.8% copper. The core is plated with pure copper. While it is possible for a coin before it was struck (in this case the blank) to have missed the process that involves the copper plating, it does not happen too often. For the production of cents, the Mint purchases the blanks that are manufactured by outside sources. The Mint however, does supply the outside sources with the zinc and the copper used for the manufacture of the blanks. It is unusual for the blanks to arrive at the Mint without having been plated.

Many science experiments in middle schools and high schools involve the removal of copper from the copper-plated zinc composition cents. Some experiments involve the use of nitric acid on the surface of the coin. The nitric acid will remove the layer of copper from the zinc core. Because there is some copper in the zinc core, the core will also be effected with the result being a slightly rough surface appearing on the coin. The nitric acid does not effect the zinc.

Your coin also exhibits remnants of the copper on the surface and on the edges that indicate that the copper that was once on the coin had been removed.

Unplated Lincoln cent

I placed a picture of your coin next to a genuine coin that missed the plating process. You can see the rough surface on the 1991 D dated coin as opposed to the smooth undamaged surface of the 1987 D dated coin.

Since your coin has been damaged by acid, it does not have any numismatic value.

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Presidential Dollars…Can the Date and Edge Lettering be Upside Down?

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

When I recently opened a roll of the new George Washington dollars, I found 14 of them with the edge-incused inscriptions “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” and “IN GOD WE TRUST,” which could only be read with the reverse of the coin up. With the portrait of George Washington obverse up, the edge-incused inscriptions and date were upside down. Is this of any importance? Thank you.

It is normal for the lettering to be applied either way. The coins are struck first then they are placed in the mechanism that will letter the edges and date the coin.

Presidential Dollar Coins - Edge Lettering

There is no attention paid as to which way the coin is fed into the edge lettering machine. So some will come out with the lettering facing up in relation to the obverse and some will have the lettering up in relation to the reverse. In the overall scheme of things, statistically, over time, it should aproximate fifty percent being one way and fifty percent being the other.

It therefore is not an error but is indeed a normal part of the production. Still, I would want to collect one of each for my collection.

The PROOF versions of these coins are struck with a three piece collar that is engaged at the moment the coin is struck. Since these coins are fed into the coinage presses in a particular way, all proof coins in the Presidential dollar series should have the lettering facing “up” in relation to the obverse.

Posted in Collecting, Error Coin, Found in Rolls, Mystery Coin | Comments Off

Doubled Dies on Kennedy Half Dollars!!!

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

For those of you who search through rolls of Half Dollar coins or for those of you who may have some Kennedy Halves in your collection, there may be more to them then meets the eye. While many people look for the silver content pieces that occasionally appear, you can discover even more hidden treasures by looking very closely at the smaller details. A good jeweler’s loupe is a great help when examining some of the smaller devices on these coins.

There are many rare and exciting die varieties that can be found on Kennedy Half Dollars. There are Doubled Dies, Tripled Dies and even Quadrupled Dies that can be located if you know what to look for. On the OBVERSE, one of the best places to look for the effects on a coin of having been struck by a die with multiple images is the “IN GOD WE TRUST” motto. If you examine the pictures carefully, you will see the signs of the type of doubling that is very much sought after by collectors.

1964 D Quadrupled Die Obverse - Kennedy Half Dollar - WE

You can see what we call “SPLIT SERIFS” as extra points on the upper portion of the W of WE. You can see the “GROOVES” that run through the letters (especially visible on the 1964 D QDO [Quadrupled Die Obverse] pictured below). And you can see what we call “NOTCHES” that are visible where the overlapping of letters occurs. Notches are visible at the upper and lower portions of letters where the overlapping occurs and they look like little cuts at the “corners” of the letters.

1964 D - Quadrupled Die Obverse - Kennedy Half Dollar

There are also characteristics that we can look at to see if if a Kennedy Half dollar might be one of many doubled die reverse, die varieties.

1969 D Doubled Die Reverse - Kennedy Half Dollar - Doubled Stars

On the REVERSE of the coins, you can look for DOUBLED RAYS or STARS. On some coins, you can see nice doubling on the lettering. The easiest things to spot are grooves on the letters. You can see a nice groove on the last S in the word STATES.

1969 D Doubled Die Reverse - Kennedy Half Dollar

There are varieties on all the silver and silver clad issues as well as many of the copper-nickel clad pieces. Many are aware of the 1974 D DDO (Doubled Die Obverse) as it is listed in “A Guide Book of UNITED STATES COINS” by R.S. Yeoman and edited by Kenneth Bressett but there are some other nice ones to be found. To identify specific Die Varieties, you may want to consider purchasing the “CHERRYPICKERS’ GUIDE to RARE DIE VARIETIES of UNITED STATES COINS” 4th Edition by Fivaz and Stanton. This book is in two volumes. Volume I edited by Mike Ellis includes coins from Half Cents through Nickels and Volume II with a Foreward by Q. David Bowers contains coins staring with Half Dimes and ending with varieties on Twenty Dollar Gold Pieces. Volume II also includes a small section on varieties to be found on Commemorative Half Dollars.

1974 D Doubled Die Obverse - Kennedy Half Dollar

Good Luck In Your Searches! You may be able to find some nice die varieties as you look through your Kennedy half Dollars!

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Utah States Quarter – Struck through Grease?

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

While I was looking through a roll of States quarter dollars I found one that looks unusual. The “UT” of Utah is almost missing and the 2007 date is very faint, as well as the motto below it. On the obverse the “UNI” in United States is also very faint. So, the question is…..Would this be considered and error coin or have any value?

There are a few possible explanations that would fit this description.

1)The coin was struck through a layer of grease and the details as described were not fully struck up as a result.

2) The coin was actually weakly struck and the pressure applied during the strike was not up to the necessary amount needed for a coin to be fully struck.

The most common explanation is the struck through grease scenario. If you see patches of irregular surfaces around the weakly struck areas then this would be the likely cause.

Either one would technically be considered an error but a coin struck by a grease filled die is not so unusual and a premium would be minimal.

A weak strike is less common and would be worth a few dollars depending on how weak the entire strike was.

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Using Diagnostics to Identify Die Varieties : Part 1

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

A Series of Poorly Struck Lincoln Cents

Using diagnostics to attribute coins is a two sided issue.

The coins shown here are to point out that what someone sees may not be a diagnostic of anything specific.

The first example shows a coin with a weak E in the motto “E PLURIBUS UNUM”. The coin is dated 1971 D. The weak E can be seen on many coins of many dates and by itself is not a diagnostic tool for anything in particular.

The rest of the coins show similar weakness on the letters STATES OF.

Weakness of strike will cause the lettering on this portion of the coin to show up with various degrees of weakness (or sharpness) of the lettering. It is very common to see different degrees of weakness in this area.

The idea here is that you can’t look for one diagnostic item listed in a guide and based upon that diagnostic alone decide whether a coin is a doubled die or another desirable coin.

Take for example the 1983 Lincoln cent DDR FS# 1c-036 (The big one) . The coin is supposed to have weakness on the words UNITED STATES.

It would not mean that every 1983 cent with weak lettering on UNITED STATES would be a doubled die. Common anomalies do not by themselves allow us to attribute a doubled die for example.

It is often a group of many diagnostic markers that would be used to determine if a coin is one that would be a “keeper”.

The things seen on these coins are on a group of coins that I randomly looked through in about 15 minutes. The “diagnostics” seen on these coins don’t indicate anything. They just happen randomly as coins are being struck.

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Using Diagnostics to Identify Die Varieties : Part 3

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Since Die Varieties can be traced back to individual dies or die pairs, we can use that knowledge to attribute certain die varieties. We can compare one coin to another in order to look for the details that we suspect are characteristics of a particular die variety. Those details are expected to be exactly the same on each coin and if the details are essentially identical then it is possible to establish that a coin was struck by the same die or die pair as another coin. That is what makes a die variety a die variety!

Let me first say that “The Cherrypickers’ Guide to RARE DIE VARIETIES” Fourth Edition – Volume 1, by Fivaz and Stanton as Edited by Mike Ellis, has a notation under this one that suggests a theory of a “well placed die chip”. It is my personal opinion as well as that of many specialists that these 1997 Doubled Ear cents are indeed doubled dies.

1997 Lincoln Cent - Doubled Die Obverse - Doubled Ear

Note that the extra earlobes to the south of the primary ear lobe, taking into account some slight variance in lighting, are identical on each of these three coins. When looking for the doubled ear 1997 DDO, the ears must look identical to these or it is simply not the right one.

Posted in "Roll Searchers' Newsletter", Coin Care, Collecting, Die Varieties, Error Coin, For Sale | Comments Off

In God We Trust!

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

The IN GOD WE TRUST on the Peace Dollars is normal with a spelling that looks like IN GOD WE TRVST.

1926 Peace Dollar - IN GOD WE TRVST

The V is used instead of the U in what was called the architectural alphabet. There are many buildings erected in the earlier part of the 20th century that can be found that do the same thing.
The most common language, worldwide for coin inscriptions is Latin, and in Latin the letters U and V are the same, and are the 20th letter in the Roman alphabet. They are both a vowel and a consonant, so that the Romans would have spelled Venus as VENVS, the first V being pronounced vee as a consonant, and the second V being pronounced uh as a vowel. This is totally normal on the Peace Dollar.

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Two Headed or Two Tailed Coins !

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

So… You Say you found a two headed or two tailed coin? Well, Please read on!

I can practically guarantee that it is a coin called a Magician’s Coin. There are two headed and two tailed coins that are made as novelty items.

The coin you have will actually come apart of you fool with it long enough. After they get placed into circulation, wear makes it very difficult to find and operate the seam but it is there.

A few ways you can check this coin is as follows:

Look at the two sides in relation to each other. They usually don’t line up right. Hold the coin between your thumb and forefinger with the obverse or reverse (heads or tails) on one side perfectly straight up. Slowly spin the coin between your fingers and take note of the position of the “other” side. The other side should be positioned exactly “upside down” in relation to the first side. It will probably not line up right. We call that rotated. That is a sign that the two halves were not put back together in a normal coin orientation the last time it was taken apart and put back together.

The next test is what I like to call the “ring” test or even better, the “THUD” test. When you drop a normal half dollar, it will actually ring. Even copper-nickel clad coins will produce a musical pitch when you drop it on a hard surface.

Compare the ring of a real coin to your double tailed one. A good coin will ring and the double tailed one will go “THUD” . It will sound like you dropped a chunk of lead. The air between the layers deadens the normal ring.

In some cases, there is enough air between the sections of the coin that if you place it in water, a few minute bubbles will appear.

If you find that it is a magician’s coin, you may want to fiddle with it to open it up. Sometimes one side of the piece that is on the inside now has a foreign coin used. It adds to the trick. I have some here that have British Pennies or Mexican 20 Centavos coins on the inside.

Magician's Coin

So..Try these out and feel free to let me know what you discover about your coin.

Brand new “Magician’s Coins” that work are sold for between 5 and 10 dollars in Magic shops. Ones in circulation are interesting but have no numismatic value.

On the off chance that it is real (and the chance is slim) it would be worth a great deal of money to a collector. Figuratively speaking, 99.9999999999% of the time, they are not real.

There is at least one United States quarter dollar that was made with two reverse dies. The coin appears to have been made in 1965 or so, based upon research done to identify the dies that were used to produce the piece. The coin was authenticated in 2001.

There is also an 1859 Indian head Cent known that was struck using two obverse dies.

How these coins came to be is very suspect and it is thought that they were intentionally made as opposed to being made in error.

Posted in Collecting, Error Coin, Mystery Coin, Novelty Coin | Comments Off

Error Coins !

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

Some coins that appear to be damaged might actually be valuable and collectible ERROR coins. While many coins are damaged outside of the mint, there are some coins that would be worth hanging on to. Here is a short and simplified list of error coins that collectors really seem to be interested in. For more information on these or any other types of errors, post a question on this site.

BLANK PLANCHET : This is a metal disk that did not get into the coining press. It will be blank on both sides and be made of the same metal a coin would be made from. In the case of Blank Planchets cut from dime, quarter or half dollar stock, there will be no reeded edge.

OFF CENTER STRIKES : When a planchet does not fall into the coining chamber correctly, it can be struck off center.

INCOMPLETE PLANCHET ERROR : Also known as a clipped planchet error, these coins are struck on a planchet that is not all there. During the process that cuts metal disks out of strips of metal, an accidental overlap occurs causing the punch to overlap an area that was already punched out. The resulting blank disks will have a portion missing. If one of these gets into the coining press an incomplete planchet error is the result.

MULTIPLE STRIKE ERROR : As the name implies, any coin that is not ejected from the coining chamber properly will be struck again. It may be centered or it may be off-centered when it receives the next strike.

MISSING CLAD LAYER : Coins like dimes, quarters and half dollars are made like a sandwich. There are two layers of nickel with a layer of copper between them. The layers are bonded together. If one of the nickel layers falls away before or after a coin is struck, one of the three layers will be missing. A coin like this will look normal on one side and be a copper color on the other side.

It takes an expert to tell if a coin is a true error or if it is simply a coin that has been tampered with. Please feel free to ask about your coin here!

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