I do not see what you are describing. You have a penny that is 76 years old and worn from circulation. Nothing more.
Wear and polishing The working die that struck your coin was made from a working hub. Working hubs are made from Master dies and Master Dies are made from a master hub (which can be used for years before it’s modified). The Master Hub has ALL the letters and designs on it, so there is no way to change LIBERTY unless you change the Master Hub. And if you change the master hub, then ALL the working dies would have this lettering style. It takes some time, but the more you learn about the minting process, the easier it is to distinguish real errors (hard to find) from damage (easy to find) Hope this helps
That coin was smoothed which makes the letters look flatter. It has also been polished and it's only worth face.
I agree and also disagree. Agree that it's been polished and is worn. But I disagree that it's junk. It may not have a monetary value over face amount , but it's not junk As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. When I was a kid all my coins that I completely cherished were like this one and in some cases even worse. I'd keep it if I came across it in my daily pocket change, for sure. It's a little piece of American history. First year the U.S. started making pennies out of copper again.
Wexler has 25 1944 DDO Lincoln Cents listed on his site. Sometimes extra thick lettering is an indication of doubling on a coin. I'm not saying you have doubled die coins. IMO, they're too worn for them to have a chance of being designated as a doubled die. Also, the US Mint overuses their dies and very worn dies produce extra thick lettering.
The 44 P looks like it has a chance of being a doubled die but hard to tell for sure because the photo fades out when I magnify it. I can see what looks like split serifs in the 44 of the date and most of the letters. This may just be camera glare. The 44 D is too worn for the doubling to show very good if it was a doubled die.
