it definitely looks to me like almost half his neck is missing... I’m wondering if this would be caused from corrosion from the blue substance, or a weak stamp or even a grease filled die? Thanks in advance!
What does the coin weigh? The coins surfaces look odd. The one that you missed is an over polished die. Also a heavy cleaning can remove some of the finer details. The corrosion is on the surface and could be hiding some of the details. It does not look grease filled but possibly weakly struck.
Yep, that is officially a weird looking penny. Seems like it's an OK strike, don't see grease, maybe late die stage because of the die cracks on reverse, bottom corners of memorial... I'd keep it because it's nifty, don't know if worth anything.
Thanks! I will find out the weight later tonight when a friend brings their scale over. This penny has been sitting in a wooden piggy bank in my folks house since the mid to late 80s and has never been cleaned I assure you.
i definitely will... my friend didn't end up coming over tonight so ill just go buy a scale tomorrow.. got an 82D small date i need to weigh anyhow! btw, what should this coin weigh? (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/1983-lincoln-cent-skinny-neck.338017/#post-3503045)
Agreed that is one odd looking cent.... Just wondering if the dark stain that runs done the side of his face and jacket may be imparting some illusion to make it appear the neck is partially missing?
definitely weird. You can see his collar is depressed too where his throat would be up to his chin. Since the 8 micron thin copper plating is still there, it must have been a die issue (you see the same problem in his mouth/cheek area) .. die polished a tad too much maybe ?
Not sure guys... a lot of this terminology is over my head but here are some more pics that may help!
When I blow up your original pics, it looks like there is die polish on the obverse. (It doesn’t look like plating blisters to me). Also note how areas on the right side of the jacket blend into the field, which is also an indication of a polished die. The obverse may have been clashed and polished, which would account for the missing detail in the neck. Unfortunately, the coin also has a lot of staining and corrosion, so it’s difficult to see if there are any remnants of the clash to the left of Lincoln’s head. If it’s a polished die, it wouldn’t command much of a premium, even if it was in nice condition. With all of the stains/corrosion, I’m not sure if it’s even worth saving.
"dies" are like a Cookie Cutter. It's a premade design or image of the coin. Over time the die needs "maintenance" to increase it's longevity. So they buff the metal a bit, which decreases the sharpness of the intricate details of the design. Such as what you have with your cent. Remember, This is due to the coin being used for commerce, not designed for collectors scrutinizing every minute detail of a coin. They try to make the dies (Anvil die, Hammer die and collar) last as long as possible to decrease the total cost of manufacturing. They do not care about about quality, only quantity. If you care about quality then the US MINT makes Proof coins, and uncirculated sets of which, they care more about quality, than quantity.
Thanks for the information! Would you agree that this adds no value to the coin and thus is not worth saving?
You can keep it for a talking coin. Neat thing to see. But it has a bunch of gunk, corrosion, stuff all over it. I had an old roll that I rolled in the early 90s have some pretty nice looking and shiney cents. But all the post 1982 copper plated zinc stuff can have that white stuff all over it. I'm assuming a zinc leak. Sooner or later it's going to totally corrode. That black stuff may be corrosion. The white stuff is probably zinc that hasn't been exposed to high humidity or steam (like in washer/dryer combo).
Well I always hear people say NEVER CLEAN YOUR COINS YOULL ONLY RUIN THEM!! So I typically try not to... but I just took a rag and wiped this one off and it looks a lot better to me, and I cant see how it could make it worth any LESS.
The silver color stuff is the zinc. So if this gets exposed to water/steam then it's going to deteriorate quickly. For the condition it was in cleaning it gave it more eye appeal. One of my first posts here was about cleaning a trade dollar that had stains from a bad dipping. Most agreed that cleaning it properly was a good thing. So cleaning can be good but for good condition coins cleaning can cause damage to the surface that novices usually don't see or understand. For instance you probably made a lot of minor scratches on the surface that detailed before and after pics would show. But the gunk on it was icky so clean away.
