Using Diagnostics - Part 1

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Author: Bill O'Rourke

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 of 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.