So I wanted to kill a few hours. I had an old box (about $40.00) of random wheat's. I was just taking my time looking at the details for any anomalies and errors. These die chips in the "B" of Liberty "must" be unbelievably common....simply because I have six of them. But all the same dates and die chips in the same places?? My records indicate they "only" minted 1,051,342,000!!! Is that a "B" for Billion? I doubt if these came from the same exact die. Do you think this was a common occurrence with all 57-D die?......or just die's in general? Thanks!
No, that is a B, for Billion. Many dates of Lincolns have mintages in the billions. And, if there is a weakness in a design, the stresses will tend to focus in the same area on a number of different dies. Die chips are extremely common in the B, R, 9, 5, and mintmark.
Oh man, yes "B" sorry. I've gotta learn to read numbers!! I just did an edit! Thanks! And thanks for the "Die chips are extremely common in the B, R, 9, 5, and mintmark". That helps a lot.
Just think about the shape of the letter B and what the die would look like to produce that. There's a tiny piece of metal that punches the loop of the B. When that piece of metal inside the loop of the B breaks off a little, you get this die chip. Similar things happen in the places @physics-fan3.14 pointed out.
