88 D Lincolns

Mine are not RPM's though. Just examples of "not an RPM". I have been taking pics for a while with a cheap USB microscope. I usually tip the top edge of the tube up and set the bottom on the table right next to the coin. I position the camera over the area of interest, and rough focus. Then I move it back and forth until the light is where I want it. Then I focus the lens. In some cases it matters a lot which direction the light is coming from. I might have to take the pic upside down to change the direction of shadows so the feature I'm trying to display is more prominent. Then flip it in Windows Photo Viewer.. I can't turn the lights off on my camera, but I cut the center of a bottle cap out for a translucent filter. It works best in a dark room.

 

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88 D's are not rare. The reason you aren't finding many is geographics. If you live closer to Philadelphia, the banks will get supplied with plain Lincolns. If you live closer to Denver the banks get supplied with D's. The newer the coin, the more difficult it will be to find coins with the opposite mint mark. It takes decades for large quantities of coins to spread throughout the country via people traveling. That's why in New England it's easier to find a D from the 1950s than from the 1990s. Best solution to problem is to find a trading partner on opposite coast.

 

At what die stage would you say the mark becomes questionable?

 

A repunched mint mark is a repunched mint mark regardless of the die stage. You do not have a repunched mint mark. My photo's and your coin are examples of the plating crack on the east side of the mint mark. As the coin ages the exposed zinc oxidizes causing the dark line that you believe is an rpm.

 

Yep, two different coins, I wasn"t referring to any dark lines. As a die breaks down devices get distorted especially on zincolns plating bubbles etc. it was the question I asked, you seem to be the know it all.

 

What did you mean by that statement? I was trying to address that.