1956 Wheat D mint mark is touching the 9 - any value to that?

I bought some wheat pennies (I love pennies, for no apparently reason ) and in a roll of 1956D's, there were a few that had the mint mark between the 9 and the 5 and about touching the 9. On the other ones' from that year, the mint mark is much lower on the coin. Is this a rarety, or does this happen a lot to mint marks. Any and all responses much appreciated. Thanks! Oh, and I know the value of a coin is determined by it's condition, I was just wondering if this made a coin any more valuable than if it was in the correct spot on the coin.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Until 1990 I believe, mintmarks were put into the die by hand, so variations of the location are somewhat common.

 

I have read that - that the mint marks were put into the die by hand. I also have read where, if they decided they didn't like where they put the mark, they could move it to what they thought was a better location, and this created some D over S's types of things. So that's why I got a bit excited - my mint mark is obviously not in the same spot as the others of the same date.

Appreciate your response. So my little 1956 D beauty may not be any more rare than it's sisters - but she's a tiny beauty anyway.

 

look for repunched mintmarks on those wheaties, there were quite a few back then...

 

The 1956-D has quite a few RPMs. When the mm is high like yours some have a second much weaker mm lower. One is the D and D where the second lower D is very weak or just a partial outline of part of the D. This is different from the D over D so they call it D and D.

 

It seems I may have to invest in a better magnifier. I bought a little cheapie guy on Amazon and he was working at pretty well until his light bulb died (I think the dog left it on by mistake......) Any ideas on getting better magnification? And here's another question - if I have to use a magnifier to see the error, then is the error really worth seeing? I have a few pennies that seem to have an S under a D, or some such thing, but the one is very faint and not bold like the other (reminds me of Sesame Street - one of these things is not like the other....). So if it is faint, does it count??

 

Oh! Thanks, I will look.

 

It doesn't appear that they do. But thanks! I will definitely check the rest of them.

 

There is a good book you may want; "Looking through Lincoln cents" by Charles D. Doughtrey. I have the 2nd edition 2005.
He says a lot about the 1956-D and the various different configurations found.
You may want to look online at www.coppercoins.com and plug in 1956-D for a search of the RPMs.
I have found a few myself just searching rolls, the best is a 1956-D 1MM-001 which is very impressive. They actually are common. The die is thought to have made about a quarter million coins.

 

Very encouraging words....thanks! I will get that book and check out that website! So, your coin, a 1MM-001 - I'm at a loss on what that might mean. One mint mark - 1st edition? I am trying to learn as fast as I can, but I haven't really delved into what the numbers all mean yet...

 

I just looked at www.coppercoins.com and there are 29 different varieties of the 1956-D rpm listed. The third one -003 I also found searching rolls.

 

you can get 'loupe' magnifier at most coin supply sites, a digital or USB microscope, also check www.lincolncentresource.com, another informative site.

 

OK to learn fast do this:
go to www.coppercoins.com and on the left you see some options. Click the top option,
mintmark variety search. When you get to that page it asks what year you want.
Plug in from: 1956 and then to: 1956 again on the second space.
Then click only on Denver. For rpms under variety type click "mintmark varieties".

 

1MM is just the catagorization system of coppercoins.com...a website that lists die varieties for Lincoln Cents. It is just a reference number for repunched mintmarks. For instance, this coin is listed as 1956D-1MM-001, meaning it is a repunched mintmark variety and it is the first listed on the site for the given year. http://coppercoins.com/lincoln/diestate.php?date=1956&die_id=1956d1mm001&die_state=mds

You can use this site to type in a date, select a die variety (such as doubled die, mintmark variety, etc), select a mintmark (lincoln cents with no mintmark were struck in Philadelphia), and then click search and it will give you a list of die varieties for a given year.

For more information on die varieties and errors, I would suggest the following sites:

lincolncentresource.com (there is also a forum at lincolncentresource.net)
errorvariety.com
doubleddie.com
error-ref.com

 

Here is an\\my example of that WRPM ( Wide)

 

Wow! You guys are awesome! Thank you so much for all the info. It's really incredible, and I have been using Google - when I could have been here. Really, really appreciated. This makes my search so much more fun.

 

For general checking I use a 10X loupe. When I think I found something I switch to a 16X loupe to look at the mintmark only. Some of the rpms I did not see good at first with any loupe. So I took a picture of the mm holding a 10x loupe over the lens of the camera. Then I blew up the picture and presto! I had a rpm. Then you can print out the blowup.

 

Sounds like a much better idea than what I was using, and might save my eyesight some. Thanks so much. I was thinking about posting some pictures, but that could be tricky without some magnification happening - wonderful replies. Thanks all!

 

That's very helpful. I went on the site, and tried to make heads out of tails ... aahhh. This sounds much easier.

 

Yes that is the D *and* D, not to be confused with the D over D. As you can see the bottom D is weaker. Also the top D is jammed right up between the 9 and 5.