1935 S wheat penny, mint mark on Lincoln's face?

Discussion in 'What's it Worth' started by Jennifer Bond, Mar 27, 2020.

  1. Jennifer Bond

    Jennifer Bond Member

    I was going through a bunch of unsearched rolls of wheat pennies. I found many great uncirculated pennies, Indian head pennies, and THIS penny!

    It REALLY looks like the S mintmark was physically stamped onto Lincoln's nose. The fact that they hand stamped the mint marks on the dies at this time makes me think that maybe they missed a couple and hand stamped the coin? Idk but this area just seems very weird to me. Never seen anything like it before

    Here are a couple of pictures of the area in question.
     

    Attached Files:

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  3. tommyc03

    tommyc03 Senior Member

    Don't have a clue but not something you see every day.
     
  4. cbtengr

    cbtengr New Member

    Some of them old coins have so much wear it's hard to tell if it's damage or something the mint may have done. Since I'm on house arrest, I've got about 4,000 old wheats I'm going thru and I am constantly rechecking stuff.
     
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  5. frankjg

    frankjg Well-Known Member

    It’s damage, who knows from what or where.

    Hand punching the mint mark directly on the coin doesn’t even work, logically. It would be incused instead of raised.
     
  6. Islander80-83

    Islander80-83 Well-Known Member

    Looks like something I did with my BB Gun when I was a kid.
     
  7. alurid

    alurid Well-Known Member

    Welcome to Coin Talk.
    I say PMD. (Post Mint Damage) A photo of the reverse will help with verification.
     
  8. happy_collector

    happy_collector Well-Known Member

    Looks like post mint damage to me also.
     
  9. cpm9ball

    cpm9ball CANNOT RE-MEMBER

    Yes! The reverse may reveal damage in the same area.

    Oops! I almost forgot. Welcome to the neighborhood @Jennifer Bond ~ Chris
     
  10. Pickin and Grinin

    Pickin and Grinin Well-Known Member

    I am bored, we used to shoot plastic thumb tacks with pellets.
     
    Islander80-83 likes this.
  11. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    That S is the tip of Lincolns nose. Something has damaged the coin in that area. Welcome to CT.
     
  12. Jennifer Bond

    Jennifer Bond Member

    I thought maybe damage, but it looks as if it was stamped on there and the S is the exact same size when I put it next to another S coin of the same year. I'll pull it out tomorrow and take a picture of the back and a few more of the front next to some other S mint marks from the same time. It definitely looks like it was stamped in hard but quite awhile ago.

    Im not entirely sure how simple damage could make a raised S in the middle of an imprinted stamped area. Believe me, the S is in fact raised inside the stamped area.
     
  13. Jennifer Bond

    Jennifer Bond Member

    Ive compared it to others, the tip of his nose is a bit further out. I will take better comparison pictures and post them tomorrow.
     
  14. Jennifer Bond

    Jennifer Bond Member

    Also, just to point out. You can clearly see the S isnt the tip if his nose because its in line with his top lip

    Thanks for the welcome.
     
  15. paddyman98

    paddyman98 I'm a professional expert in specializing! Supporter

    DEFDAM - Definitely Damaged. What you think happened is not possible. Another member explained why.

    Worth? 1 Cent
     
  16. l.cutler

    l.cutler Member

    The coin was simply punched with something. What you see as an S is just the shape of whatever the coin was punched with. It could have been something like a nail set which is a punch with a hollow on the end for sinking a finish nail.
     
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  17. Adam Blancarte

    Adam Blancarte New Member

  18. paddyman98

    paddyman98 I'm a professional expert in specializing! Supporter

  19. White Ger. Shep. Lover

    White Ger. Shep. Lover Well-Known Member

    Really really odd. This rekindles very distant memories of a story I once read where a foreman at the SF mint brought his elementary school daughter into work one day. I completely forgot what year it was and the story itself had to do with the SF mint and not this worker's daughter. But in this article, it made mention of this inquisitive little girl peppering the workers with questions. After she asked one worker what the "s" on the cent stood for, the joker stamped an "s" right on Honest Abe's nose and said "snout". I guess stranger things have happened. But, I would definitely side with the esteemed posters in this thread and call it in all liklihood DEFDAM.
     
    Collecting Nut likes this.
  20. Adam Blancarte

    Adam Blancarte New Member

    [​IMG]
    Could very possibly be. But a mis-positioned mint mark for this year isn't entirely out of the question? (Missed placed punctuation (?); pun intended); in order for these "s" marks to be written off as DEFDAM so easily wouldn't they have to be completely out side of the possibility of error within the manufacturing process at the mint?
    I would argue that "s" mint marks on these 1944 D pennies have been found on planchets of the year in question and certified by multiple coin grading companies as existing due to mint error. So besides just being pessimistic and discounting the possibility of us having one off error coins not know to exist simply because none have been found or certified what actual logic/basis are you using to discount the possibility that a mint mark of an "s" on Lincoln's face (close to his nose in both accounts) is an impossibility? Especially now that two have been presented. Please expound. You time and attention are greatly appreciated by this figurative daughter of numismatics. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth sending in and if so what would be the best place to send it in to? thank you!!!
     
  21. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    I must be daft. I truly only see what appears to be a cent used for BB target practice. What the dickens are you guys seeing here?
     
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