This was found in circulation so I know it's a long shot... but the edges look right to me..... anyone else have an opinion?
Before ANYONE LOOKS AT ANOTHER 1990 CENT, they really must familiarize themselves with what a proof coin looks like. Threads like this are ridiculous. My very first coin in my collection, back in 1963, WAS a proof coin, 5 of them in fact. Come on people! This is kindergarten level understanding here. Shape up!
Yes sir I understand what a proof coin is , but this would be a proof coin found in circulation, so it might have some wear and tear on it. Heritage auctions told me to take it to a local dealer to get it checked out and if I get it graded, they are interested in buying. If it is the 1990 no s proof. I know it's a hail mary but there is always a chance! lol
It would still have mirrored fields, just dinged up and scratched. Go buy a 1968-S, or another cheap year of proof cent and carry it around in your pocket for a month then look at it. You will see that a proof is a proof, regardless of grade.
[I posted this in another thread a few months ago, but think it's worth repeating for the OP] Proof coins are only issued in sets from the mint. It's generally rare to find any proof coin in circulation. Someone would have to go through the effort of breaking open the plastic holder and then spend the coins at face value. What are the odds that someone was lucky enough to get one of the very few No S cent sets and just decided that they would break open the set and spend the coins. The probability would be very, very, very small. In addition, modern proof coins have a distinctive appearance. If you get any proof cents in change, you'll know it. In 48 years of collecting I've looked at nearly every coin that passed through my hands, I and have probably only received 3 or 4 proof coins total. The Philadelphia Mint made 6.8 BILLION business strike cents for circulation without the a mintmark. The estimated mintage of 1990 No S Proof cents is less than 200. So, based on the difficulty of Proof coins finding their way into circulation and the number of each minted, which do you think you have? 1990 No S proof (pic from PCGSCoinfacts)
@dbeck22 ...if you even suspected this was a proof, even a degraded or impaired proof, why would you handle it without gloves?...Spark
1990 Lincoln cent struck at the Philadelphia mint. It doesn't even come close to what a proof coin looks like. Philadelphia struck 6,851,765,000 cents that look just like yours. How can you even come to the conclusion that it is a proof?
If the MM's are put into the dies, how did this error happen? They started punching out proofs before they put the S on?
No. This is the type of thinking that will cause you to waste time and attention - yours and mine. There’s a gentleman named Occam here, and he needs a shave.
With enough circulation, a proof coin can lose all its mirror fields and no longer look like a proof. By the time this occurred, the grade would probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of a Fine 12. That's how we know this isn't a circulating proof, the grade is way too high to be a proof with no mirror fields.