You've probably heard about Lincoln Cents with a Narrow or a Wide AM. Do yoiu know the mint struck both varieties in three different years? 1998 1999 2000 You may even know business strikes of all three years were struck in both varieties. Do you know the Wide AM was created only for proof coinage of those three years? All Narrow AM reverses were struck with regular "business strike" dies.All Wide AM reverses were struck using proof dies. Do you know, on all Narrow AM strikes the designer's initials (FG)are farther from the base of the monument than are those on the Wide AM proofvariety? Here's an image of a regular business strike coin's reverse courtesy of Ken Potter: http://koinpro.tripod.com/VarietiesUS/19981cTy1RevMicros.jpg Here's an image of the business strike with the proof die's reverse. Note the closeness of the designer's initials: http://koinpro.tripod.com/VarietiesUS/19981cTy2RevMicros.jpg For your information: "A search of current and completed eBay auctions seems to imply that the 1998 may be very scarce to rare since a number of 2000 dated specimens have been offered while there are no offers of the 1998! 1999 specimens appear to be exceedingly rare!" Now I want to report more ineptness: This time at the San Francisco Mint. Proof cents dated 1998-S and '99-S are known to exist with regular business-strike die reverses. The following photo courtesy of http://conecaonline.org, Ken Potter (koinpro.com) and Michelle Smith http://conecaonline.org/image/1998S1cPrTy1Rev300px.jpg Hope this helps in your knowledge of numismatics... Clinker
Clinker, Thank you for that information! Even though I don't collect "cents" or "pennies" or "1c" coins, it looks like I'll be looking for the 1999 and the 1998 1c coins from da mint.....I think....LOL! Thanks again! swick
Have you also heard that in 1992, most coins were struck with the wide AM, but a few were struck using reverse dies intended for 1993, i.e. close or narrow AM, for both D and (P) cents? Or that they were supposed to start using the particular style of wide AM in 1989 but a few were mistakenly made in 1988? Here's a description of that one: http://www.varietyvista.com/1988PRDV006 cent.htm
More work for the weary Great info Clinker & AG. Now I've got to sort thru more coins to get me some WIDE & narrow AM cents. Bruce
mralexanderb- sorry to be off-topic but I don't think you have e-mail or pm activated- I have to know, what metal crystal is shown in your avatar?!
AdCollector Thanks for the info and website addendum,,, P.S. Forgive me for making the "g" in your member name a "d"... Clinker
