Going though some coins my grandfather rolled back in 1989 and came across a few of these. 1989-D and on the reverse in the pillars above Lincoln's statue appears to be two ledges. I attached photos of with and without. Coin also appears to be a slight tilted die. Did I find something? 0
I'll pitch my vote of it being die deterioration, but 1980s cents are definitely not my expertise. Not to get off-topic, but your photos--both the magnified images and the full-coin images--are excellent! What do you use?
Sorry. You're focusing on something too insignificant. The coin is normal for this year. No design change that I can find. Just teasing.
I don't know much about them either. Full frame camera with 180mm macro lens and off camera lighting. Magnified shots are just a coin microscope with LED light. I also used a little bit of light from the side to help warm up the shot.
Check VV and Wexler to see if anything similar shows up. But, I’m inclined to agree with @SorenCoins that it is die deterioration. However… Your coin is not normal for a Zincoln. It has a very strong strike: A complete design with fully formed letters and numbers with some pressure weakness in the face on the obverse and TES OF/STATES OF on the reverse. Full stair lines with some minor weakness in the bottom right quadrant/steps. And, NO SPLIT PLATING is apparent, except the O/ONE* ( a minor miracle in itself ) although there are some scattered surface bubbles. You have to appreciate your coin as an abnormal one. Most Zincolns possess multiple defects from manufacturing, and spotting and staining is prevalent. Your coin is a keeper. I would keep it if I owned it, and I would assign a grade of MS63RD. It may not have more than 20 cents value right now but preserved properly for the future it will gain. After all, now is the time to save and preserve new-looking coins, especially if they are defect free or have only minor flaws…imo…Spark *edited to clarify
That's strike doubling. Any movement of the planchet however slight at the time of the striking causes it. You can find it on virtually every coin someplace.
Thank you for the info. I have two rolls of these and many of them and are almost all similar to this one. A few have more zinc bubbles, some have none or any splitting. I have compared a few of them to all of the sites and nothing matches.
My theory is: the pressure weaknesses exhibited match on both sides. To me this is a malformed planchet that didn’t take the strike well or moved in the collar during the strike. It is a true statement that Zincolns possess a plethora of defects, and overused dies is just the beginning of the list. I just finished a time-capsule batch of LMCs ( a jar containing 589 cents dating 1960-1998. There were 4 ‘98-Ds, leading me to the conclusion the jar was last added to in 1998). I ended up preserving 171 of those that were AU58 or better. There were 149 1994 P&D that appeared fresh from the mint. But close inspection revealed circulation wear, split plating, staining and incomplete strikes along with die deterioration. Overall I saved about 30.4%. Almost 70% were discarded because of one prevalent defect or another, but about 25 of those preserved were Mint State. This is what I expected, having done 8 jars now over the last year…imo…Spark
