Are they sought after? ? Well I already collected them. I knew they looked odd, and unique, but I just put them in a jar with some other Lincolns that stood out.
They were hand-punched back then so you see MMs all over the place. I wouldn't imagine there is a premium attached to your two coins.
rickmp beat me to it...in my defense, I am typing only left handed while holding a sleeping baby with my right
I must disagree with the post above. As posters wrote, the MMKS on "vintage" coins were applied by hand to each die. The engravers have a general position on the die to place the letter. I have stood next to an engraver's desk at the Mint on two occasions to see the operation. What I saw on both occasions was this (and I don't know if it was explained and then done this way "for show" just because we were watching ): The engraver placed the punch on the die and tapped it very gently - enough to make a tiny mark. Then he removed the punch and checked the position. He was satisfied and re-registered the punch into the divot he had just made and gave the mintmark punch a hit with a small jeweler's hammer. IMO, the coins you have shown are very abnormal as the mintmark is not in an acceptable position. The joke goes it was the last die completed on a Friday before Christmas Eve.
Just out of curiosity, were you at the Mint in the 70's when they were positioning the mintmark on the Kennedy half dollars? Chris
No, and I expect you are making a joke. Actually, there is a "P" on the 1970 thru 1973 Kennedy's but it is hidden. I'll give you a clue, it is raised and somewhere on Kennedy's head. Now, I'll need to look at some of those coins from Denver to see if the "D's" move all over the place.
It's very common to find mintmarks like those on the OP coins. The worker did not have a great deal of room to work with.
