To many members this will seem like a mountain out of a molehill, but I have a coin that seems to be an error but not talked about very much. Here is a pic of the normal spacing, about 3 millimeters from the bottom of the 8 to the bottom of the mint mark, of a D mintmark for '85: Follows is the whole obverse of a very low mintmark: ...and here is a close-up of the measurement: The placement is very below normal, around 4mm, I have seen this before on not only this date but also others. Do any other members feel this is a mint error? You all can be brutally honest here, I just posted this because I wanted to find out how others feel about it...imo...Spark
Since the MM was hand punched, I really don't consider many of these Variety's or errors. The ones I do consider errors are the ones that become part of another design element.
I keep the really low ones. This one is cool, I think I have one. But yes, @Pickin and Grinin is right. This was one of the very last years of hand punched dies. This is not possible nowadays.
@Pickin and Grinin @Evan Saltis …I totally respect your viewpoints. The underlying question was: When does an error occur? During the manufacture of a die? Of a planchet? Or during the employment of a die or coin as by dynamic strikes and collar adjustments? Pressure weakness? I’m of the opinion that every instance one finds has to be investigated individually as they pop their heads up via whack-a-mole. Thanks for your input. Now I’m going back to my coloring book in the corner…Spark
To revise my other statement - I do consider them varieties, but they just aren't widely searched for / valuable. There is the 1985 D cent, a 1944 D cent with a low mintmark, probably some others too. My favorite is the 1970 D Jefferson nickel. Look how low the MM is! example from ebay. not worth 40 dollars though. 1970-D MML**MISPLACED MINT MARK LOW** JEFFERSON NICKEL ERROR. | eBay
There is a mint mark on one of the nickels that is up really high. I think it is the 1970 and it's basically in between the 0 and the hair. Otherwise most of those low or misplaced mms are really nothing as they were hand punched into the dies and not all of them are going to be centered correctly.