Can we put to rest my confusion over the 1988 Wide AM FS-901 per PCGS?

So being relatively new I was unaware that ALL 1988 Lincoln Cents are Wide AM's (WAM). I was doing some hunting and as far as I knew the main diagnostic for this variety was the distance between the A and M on 'AMERICA'

How does a new person research if an error for a certain years exists.. Check the price guides for the major known errors/varieties.

After purchasing a few raw examples for what seemed like a good deal ($15 each) I was preparing to send them off to grading. As that can be costly i wanted to triple check that I had what i thought i had. So off to Lincoln Resource .com I go.
http://www.lincolncentresource.com/wideams.html

That's when my doubts started. No 1988 WAM. I went back to do more research. including searching CoinTalk previous threads related to this common confusion.

To make a long story short; i'm going to attach pics of 4 coins. If some of the experts can just confirm that the real factor to determine if the 1988 cent has the 89 reverse is the simple curve to the G on the initials FG. Mine seem to be straight vertical indicating a coin worth exactly one cent. The part that pisses me off is i don't think this was an unintentional error on the part of the person I purchased these from.

The first coin pics are one coin. The last three pictures are of 3 different coins all purchased as 1988 WAMs.

How I verified this variety was attributed. (Although now i think the naming convention is misleading.)

Image from CoinTalk in a previous thread:


My Purchases:
Coin 1


Coin 2


Coin 3


Coin 4



If i did my research correctly it looks like it got ripped off, correct?

Thank you in advance for sharing your expertise.

 

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Hi
Imho, they look like the normal 1988 cent.

bp. courtesy of cc.

 

Thanks for the detailed answer. Hopefully other people see this and don't make the same mistake I did.
Much appreciated.
Justin

 

Meow was confused as a newbie as well. Meow bought a cherry picker book, and it list the 1988s as WAMs. Meow later found out that they are supposed to be WAMs. So the pile of them Meow found CRH was not the treasure that Meow thought. Meow now looks for the flared G, but has yet to find one.

 

Ya know, Meow finds it infuriating that someone would rip someone off like that. $15 for a cent worth a cent is downright criminal!

 

I would say the same.

I would like to recommend ( if you can find one) a copy of Wexler and Flynn's
" Authoritative Reference on Lincoln Cents 2nd edition" . It is worth every cent if a person is less than 20 years of messing with varieties or hasn't read every post on the forum. It, and CPG are always next to the computer desk for refreshing memory.

The same authors have other similar books on other coin ( buffaloes , Ikes, etc.) but this is my favorite.

Jim

 

stay away from etsy.com ....

 

It was the other one that started with E. But I am having a good back and forth with this gentleman, just the sheer time he has dedicated to responding, telling me his story and wanting to learn more since the 88 is really a common mistake and i believe PCGS is also very misleading in it's naming - as i mentioned before. As a matter of fact i'm going to link him to this thread so he can learn and share with others.