Lincoln Cent Double Ear Lobe?

Hello everyone, I have another example I need some help with. I found this 1996 penny in my change and when checking it out I noticed what appears to be a double ear lobe. Can someone check this out for me and let me know what your professional opinion is? Thanks.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

In my not-so-professional opinion it looks like his ear took a hit.

 

Ok, thanks, to me it looked too smooth like it wasn't damage, but maybe it happened so long ago it looks like it's just part of the original strike.

 

Certainly wait for others to chime in and give their opinions. There are many people on here who are WAY more knowledgeable than I am

 

All opinions are helpful to me, as I'm about as newbie as it gets, lol. I appreciate your input though, thanks.

 

The earlobe looks flattened, so I would say the coin got dinged after it left the mint.

 

Thank you for your input, I don't think it's a very good picture of it, and I'll see about trying to get a clearer picture of it, or I may just take it along with me on my next visit to the coin shop. Again, thanks.

 

Also, I know that some doubling is the entire side of the ear, and some are just the lower lobe part, does the lower type look anything at all like this one? And what exactly is it that tells you this is a ding? Thanks.

 

One thing to note is that doubled dies are varieties...coins such as the 1984 and 1997 double ears were struck by a doubled die, which then struck thousands upon thousands of more identical examples. If you compare your coin to one of these, you will see that the real doubled dies are fully doubled. There is an extra ear that adds to the thickness of the original ear.

One thing to do if you are not certain if it is a doubled die is to in your mind "take away" the doubled part of the coin. In your case, imagine that the doubling on the ear did not exist for a moment. Now, does the ear appear to be normal size, or smaller than normal? In your case, when you take away the doubling, the ear appears smaller than normal. That is one good indicator that your coin is not a doubled die.

I wrote a good thread on the topic of doubled dies that you can see here, maybe it can help you out a bit: http://www.cointalk.com/threads/lets-talk-doubling.224087/

 

Now that clears up a lot of doubt and helps alot in identifying real doubling, thank you for that explanation, I see exactly what you mean, I'll check out that thread also. I actually do come across many Lincoln cents with a nick right at that spot, it's a popular place for a nick, lol, but this one looked a little more than that to me until you just explained the difference, thanks again.

 

Yeah, for some reason the ear seems to be a popular place for a cent to get hit. Not sure why, but it does drive us all a little crazy while searching. Glad to help out.

 

Actually, there's another anomaly I've noticed on the Washington quarters, I'll post a picture of what I'm talking about, it's something I call a double "heel mark", I notice these same marks on many, many, Washington quarters, in different areas, I wonder if you've ever noticed them before. If you have 10 quarters you're almost guaranteed to have them on at least one.

 

OT: I would say PMD. The 1997 ddo has a more pointy ear, than a generous curve on the bottom, almost like a cone shape to it.

 

Thank you Clutchy, I appreciate your reply, and now that I'm looking at it more closely, it looks like it happened a long time ago, which made me think it was doubling, at first it didn't look like damage to my untrained eye.

 

Your "heel marks" are actually PMD caused by the ridges of another, probably fairly new and defined quarter. You'll see this for every year and it usually happens while clanging around in a mint bag. Not sure if u have yet, but if you get quarters from the mint or any high grade quarter and look at it under magnification, the ridges actually look dangerously sharp. This type of pmd will be around until the mint goes smooth or it all goes digital! Happy hunting!

 

Thanks CallMeButter, that makes sense, but why are there usually two marks side by side? That's what I see most often, two "heel marks" side by side in a straight line? Any thoughts?

 

Thats a math/physics question that I am not prepared to answer...properly...but it has to do with a)the height of the features on the coin being "dinged" b)movent and/or rotation of the striking coin c) the actual pressure that caused the marks and how far that energy would push the ridges into the coin. D) most of these impacts dont take place with perfect perpendicularity and i would assume most happen actually laying flat, but offset. A decent amount of pressure applied and that top coin's rim would press into, then slightly slide. The lower relative angle takes away from the natural arc of a circle and putting any side by side ridges at a very similar distance (relatively speaking)from the coin. Sometimes you'll see these marks,what are sometimes referred to as "bag marks", go nearly completely across a coin. Weird things happen in a bag, man. This explanation makes me insecure. Please be gentle math/physics people.

 

It would make sense that you are seeing many with 2 marks but I bet if you look at other,smaller dings more closely(though I wouldnt recommend it), you'll notice theyre just the single version of what you have and probably showing up more often than the "side by sides".