Looking for you Lincoln experts to help me here. The 1922 "no D" wheat cent is very unusual and coincidental, since there were no other Lincolns minted that year. The research I have done indicates there were obv 3 dies. If it is slabbed, does the "Strong Reverse" indicate the rarest variety?
As per Paul Joseph, ANACS rep from Webster, MA there were 4 sets of dies. Only die pair #2 was made without mintmark by mistake and had the strong reverse. That is the most valuable one.
Yes, there were 4 die pairs used that created the 4 varieties of no D and weak D and the DP2 (strong reverse) is the most collected and valuable. The rest is incorrect. The MM was POLISHED off by mint workers, it was not "made without a MM by mistake". There are FOUR types of "no D" cents, not just one: http://www.lincolncentresource.com/1922Ddievarieties.html Also, IMO, the DP 2 is not that "rarest", it is the MOST COLLECTED. IMO and from my experience, the other die pairs exist in lower numbers and rare "rarer" than the DP2 examples. We have a situation where collectors quickly realized the DP2's were missing the MM since it was obvious with the strong reverse. They were rapidly pulled from circulation by collectors. The other die varieties were harder to identify since the reverses were generally so bad. Most of them were discovered much later and in lower numbers because people couldn't tell if the MM was worn-off or if the coin was a variety. This is mostly due to ignorance, the MM is one of the last things to wear on a Lincoln. If the MM is worn, you generally can't even read the date.
Thanks for the replies...from a Feb 2015 article: Die #2 coins certainly are the most desirable, the most valuable, and the easiest to identify and certify. Of this last half-million coins produced, there were probably no more than 100,000 total No"D" coins produced, somewhere around 75,000-100,000+/- from Die #2, and maybe as many as another 10,000+/- No"D" coins from Dies #1 & 3. Practically all of the coins referred to as Weak "D" or Partial "D" cents were also produced from Dies #1 & 3 and may number as many as another 100,000 or more coins. When finally retired, Dies #1 & 3 (obverse) were producing coins with as little as 25-35% overall relief and detail, and many Die #3 acoins retained less than 20% reverse details even in mint state! Entire article: http://www.ebay.com/gds/1922-Plain-No-D-Lincoln-Cent-Very-Confusing-/10000000175710315/g.html
