I came across this while sorting some wheaties. Its a little hard to notice from my pics but the crack runs from the bottom of Mr Lincolns chin to the top of his head and it looks like a thin layer of his face fell off. Looked odd so I figured I'd ask if anyone has seen this before? Possibly damage while minting or in circulation?
Judging from your photo, it looks like a lamination defect. If it had been a crack, I would expect to see some raised metal where it flowed into the void. Chris
Not a Die Crack. I agree with Lamination. Minor error. I have seen a lot of these from early minted Lincoln Cents.
Thank you @1909VDB @cpm9ball and @paddyman98 Say this was a key date...would it negatively affect the value or no?
Depends on the collector. Some people pay premiums for it, others think it detracts from the coin's overall appeal.
Frequently errors on key dates reduce the value. They are white elephants and pretty much no one wants them. A series collector doesn't want a key date with a "defect" and an error collector might want the error, but he can acquire one a whole lot easier and cheaper on a non-key date. The only person that would actually want it would be an error collector that is putting together the whole series with every coin having that error or an error. Such collectors are very few and far between. And they know that they have the coin owner over a barrel, because who else are they going to sell it to? It makes it a buyers market. You sell it at what the buyer offers, or you can't sell it at all.
