I have been collecting pennies for my collection and I have two 1942 S penny. The odd thing is one S is bigger than the other one. Do any one know why that is?
My guess is two different punches were used to punch the mintmarks in the two working dies and the mintmark on one punch was larger than the other one.
Hello All, sorry I wasn't able to post pics since my it turned out horrible. However, the S does look just like the pic in the 1941. So is it because of the punches? Which should I keep for my collection or would it be best to keep both? I have a book that I am filling in the holes and would like to put one in there.
There doesn't seem to be much of a record as to how many dies were struck with which S- punch. The larger one was intended for a larger coin and the die setter didn't mark them well. The number of each type per year is unknown, but the smaller mark is considered normal, but the larger mark is in such large numbers that little premium is set on it. I would use the large mm if the condition of both coins were the same. I have the '42 S set also, but I had these photos already in my photobucket so I used them. Jim
Not necessarily. The dies aren't polished with such force that the size of the mintmark is altered. It's simply that the sizes of each mintmark may vary between dies for each coin within the series. -Brian
Thanks all for your imput. This is what I wanted to know. You all are awesome and I am a newbie and starting out so I may have more questions later on. Thanks again, you all rock.
