According to my friend who is one of the experts in this field and has submitted a good number of the coins to the LRC, the die cutting process made these dies deeper than usually seen. He also told me there is a goodly number of MD's floating around that commonly get mistaken for the double die obverse. gary
Honestly I would have to see a well struck '68. Thanks to an overused master hub and overused dies, the 68's are some of the poorest strikes in the series.
Most are well-struck... The die state has nothing to do with strike. But yes, the obverse dies were pretty beat in the later '60's.
This thread made me look through the photobucket account I only have one 68 photographed and it is from the Denver mint, The strike on the coin looks quite nice, especially around the rim Be it that part of it is missing, the rest looks nicely struck. And the reverse looks like it has full steps on the memorial which you can kind of see in the picture. which is kind of hard to find on most Lincoln Memorial Cents in my experience. Any Lincoln Memorial Cents with nice full steps I tend to keep anyway. Maybe I'm just weird:goofer: Just thought I would add to an interesting thread. Terry
Has anyone ever noticed the difference in relief between 1968 and 1969? The 1969 (and later) has such reduced relief that a 1968 may look well struck, when it is actually the relief that gives us that impression. I just happened to notice this after years of cherry picking.
I can tell you what Lincoln expert David Lange said about the '68's in The Complete Guide to Lincoln Cents- He goes on.
I can't believe you haven't seen a well struck 1968 Cent. I have at least a dozen of them and have passed up many more over the years. They can't help but catch your attention when you see them. The detail and relief in these 1968 Cents is remarkable.