1981 s over d mintmark and extras

Steve, If I didn't think you were joking, I would -ding- you, please read the rules about Buy-sell-trade ( not allowed in non classified threads ) Jim

 

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Joking for sure but thank you I wasn't aware

 

I see now you have three threads now hoping for a mint error. Having been a coin collector myself for more than fifty years, there is nothing that pleases me more that seeing young new coin collectors. There is so much a person can learn from coin collecting. Our entire nations history can be gleaned through its coins.... Don’t be so fast to jump on the mint error bandwagon. There are some out there. Most you may run across are common and maybe worth a few bucks. The thousand dollar errors? Well, you would do better playing the lottery..... Just understand that coin collecting can reward you with a lifetime of joy but you have to look deeper than the YouTube error videos. They are self serving and very misleading.

 

@Steve333 ...so, read the rules. Every new member needs to so they do things correctly. And if you haven’t been told...

Go to John Wexler’s website, doubleddie.com, and read ALL of the articles listed on the left side of the homepage. After you read “How dies are made”, you will never post a coin like the one in this post, and you will launch yourself lightyears ahead as a collector.

CoinTalk strives for accuracy of information, we will not lead you astray nor let anyone post bad advice without getting called on the carpet and corrected. This is how we roll...Spark

 

Thank you that's very helpful I will definitely check it out

 

Great answer thank you

 

So true!

 

Am I wrong and wondering why there would be a d punch at the San Francisco mint or an S punch at the Denver Mint? I am far from an expert on these things but neither of those scenarios makes any sense.

 

I think I was wrong.

 

No. Why would you want him to waste his money?

 

Would you believe the government sent the wrong punch to the mint? San Francisco got the D and Denver received the S. Government employees didn't get paid enough so it was a new hire that spoke up. That's when it was corrected.

 

Before 1990 or so, the main mint produced all of the dies and the branch mints S, D inserted the mint mark, During the years one mint might not use all of its dies and the other needed them. No one thought at the time they might be valuable I guess, so punching a S over a D in San Francisco , or a D over a S in Denver was no big deal then. Later each would make their own mintmark and use Phila dies to mm it., Then later the mint made master dies for each with separate mintmarks already on them , so overmint marks (OMM) were gone. That's the main reason when an OMM or RPM on current generation dies are reported, we know the chances are zero or man-aided somehow. I am doing taxes so you will have to lookup dates. Jim

 

Thank you sir

 

There is one known now. If he thinks its a keeper then he should not be ridiculed!

 

Thanks brother I might keep for a conversation piece.

 

Or, to use as a reference later, put it in a flip and come back to it. Can't hurt a thing.
We have all done the same.

 

I started collecting before 1957, but I CANNOT RE-MEMBER exactly when.

 

Well, I can RE-MEMBER where I was when I started collecting. I was in a pool room.
~ Chris

 

So it is possible it's an s over d or d over s correct? Or even someone worked there and made a mistake either on purpose or accidentally and didn't care enough about his job to tell anyone. Or the mints were mixed up and a few slipped through...I have worked with copper. Why is there not more of this disfiguration on many more older pennies? I have never seen this error. I have just never seen copper behave that way.

 

There are examples of older over mint marks. The 1900 O/CC Morgan dollar 1950D/S quarter are examples. Go to www.doubleddie.com and open the OMM (over mint marks) tab for listings.

Originally, mintmarks were added to the individual dies in Philly as @desertgem said. At some point after the 1950s (I can't recall exactly) Philly sent unmarked dies to the branch mints to add there own mintmarks. Denver would not have an S mm punch, not would SF have a D mms punch so that effectively ended the chances of an OMM

By 1981, the only cents made at SF were proofs. Proof dies were specially made with a separate process compared to business strike dies. How is Denver die going to get to SF, make it into the proof die process, strike coins, and then that coin gets out into circulation instead of a proof set???

But you're missing the obvious on your coin. The top of the D is flattened, but the bottom is normal. That was due to the D getting hit with something. Some metal was displaced towards the middle and that's what you're seeing. Makes perfect sense, especially with all of the other hits and gouges on the coin

If You want to believe that some event defied staggering odds has occurred, that's your decision, but if you want to use some knowledge of the minting process, logic, and objective observations you'll see that it's just PMD