Roll searching tonight and I came across this-1991P- No Mint Mark! Not ground down, no trace whatsoever. Over polished Die? Struck through grease? Wouldn't there be a trace of the MM? Yes, I see the circular scratch but it does not come near where the MM is. I have not found anything related to this similar so far, so any help would be appreciated.
I'm almost 63 Chris, I have CRS these days but I certainly hope they do. Be mighty painful if they didn't. By the way, don't you have a self imposed curfew?
My guess is the obverse die had a lot of grease in it. Notice how it's also missing the word 'IN'? The pony tail also looks very weak. If you have a high power microscope, I'd examine the area where the MM should be for traces of the letter.
I do have a 200X Microscope. I'll check it tomorrow, thanks. I could not see any trace with a 20X lighted loupe though.
Nice find. Shame about the coin rolling scratch. It looks like it was grease to me. A lot of weak or almost missing spots on the obverse.
I'm leaning heavily towards grease struck also but I thought, since the incorporation of the MM in the dies after 1989 that possibly the mint mark might have broken away. No such luck probably. I was busy on the wall I posted today so have not had time to use the scope to check it further yet.
I'm not sure what you are trying to say here? Could you explain what you mean? This doesn't sound like something that can happen, but I need to understand what you are saying first. Your coin was almost certainly struck through grease (I'm 99.7% sure about that). It is extremely common, and adds no value (especially heavily circulated like this). It is not from extended die use because the date and Liberty are quite crisp (if the die were worn enough to produce this effect, it would be seen across the entire coin).
Usually there would be a die chip/filled MM first as this die deteriorated. Hope I'm correct on that but if not then I need to learn some more. Is it possible for the mint mark to be completely destroyed causing this to happen? But I'm also leaning heavily towards struck through grease. I know this was not going to be worth much, especially with the scratch but I had never found one in all my years with the MM completely gone. Even if there was a trace below where it should have been, and it was worn away with age and use, it was still a unique find for me.
The mm is incuse in the die so there is nothing to break away to completely obliterate it to field level. Only way to do that is by polishing it out of the die. You have a greaser
Struck thru grease. The 1989's were well known for this as were the 2000 NH state quarters, but it can happen on any year. Since the mintmarks are incuse into the dies they can't be removed by a die chip. The center spike that creates the hollow in the top of the P can be broken away by a die chip so the top of the P on the coin is a solid lump, but the letter is still clearly there. The mintmark could be removed by extensive grinding or polishing of the die face, but to remove enough of the die face to eliminate the P would also eliminate a lot of the shallow details of the coin including probably most of the lettering.
Okay, tommy, that's what I thought you meant. Conder gave you a good explanation as to why that is a misconception.
