I was looking through a roll of UNC 1964D Roosevelts and noticed that there were two types of mint marks. There was a very skinny one that was very clear and then the second type I found was very thick and it looked like a blob. Any thoughts? Why would this happen? I know that back then, the mint mark was punched into the die secondary to the production of the die, but why the two different types? Thanks.
I think the mint marks were still applied by hand to the dies in 1964. If so, my best guess would the that one "D" was punched harder than the other. And as I understand it that would not make it a die variety. It would just be a variation that was within tolerance.
Two things that can cause it. As mentioned punching the mintmark harder and deeper into the die will cause a heavy D, and polishing of the die can result in a thinner weaker D. The thin D shown here shows a die with heavy wear and often when the flowlines would start to become heavy they would repolish he die to remove the flowlines. If that has been done to this die in the past it could have caused the thin D.
