Today was a great day. I got my brand-spanking new 2009 ASE, 1909 VDB PCGS MS65RD, and my 10x loupe (a Bausch & Lomb Hastings Triplet), as well as some other ASEs. And some drool. However!!! The purpose of this thread to both ask a question and to praise. As of right now, I have crossed eyes, the beginning of a headache, and a PROFOUND RESPECT for those that look through loupes for more than 5 minutes every day trying to find DDOs or anything that requires a closer look. I mean, seriously. As I type this, I'm not entirely certain that my eyes aren't crossed a little. I keep shaking my head to try to get back to normal. Now, here's the question. Having spent some time with my new loupe, I found 2 Lincolns that appear to have been struck with grease-filled dies. However, once I found 2 that had lack of detail in the same area, I became skeptical, and I don't know if they're grease-filled die errors or not. The area in question is the last couple of letters in "STATES" and "OF". There is no wear around the area, and the details are very well preserved IMO. Any help? Thanks for your input! -Peter
Keep in mind that I'm new to error coins, and I could very well be crazy after 6 hours of lab today X_X
sketcherpbr; when I first looking at coin about 6 months ago I to saw many, many, many of the same as your photo. Thinking it was something wrong there I saved them untill I found out they were caused by grease filled dies. I returned them to my spend pile. I use a 30x36 magnifier. It's like a loupe except the lens is about 1 1/4 across. It helps with the eye strain.
ok = ) good to know, at least I identified them correctly. Gives me a little more confidence in my identifying abilities! Thanks!
I had the option of buying a 10x and 20x for $32 total, but the wait was a possible 30 days...and I need it for school every day. So I couldn't wait unfortunately = ( That 30x36 must have cost you a pretty penny!!
Actually it was under $20. Got it on flea-bay. Tried to find it (the ad) for you to see but I can't locate it. I'll keep looking.
ok, I just bought a 30x21mm Triplet for under $4 on the bay, which is a STEAL. still 21 mm is kind of frustrating.
awesome, mine's a 10x20.5mm. Hopefully get to use it some tomorrow on what I bought it for mainly = P
this is definately a strike through greased dies. These can appear on a run of coins through the same dies in a row.
Hi, I'm gonna throw something into the mix here on those two coins. To start with they look to be early 1980s, I am putting them around 1983 or 84, probably Philadelphia mint. They were still working out the details on how to strike decent copper-plated zinc cents. I've seen many where those areas consistently are weakly struck. Some are due to the dies being overly dressed (polished) after a die clash. Some are simply poor strikes. I don't believe these (the coins seen above) are struck through, grease filled dies. In fact on one of my websites, I have a series of photos that spans across almost two decades of Lincolns showing this same anomaly in essentially the same place. I have seen literally thousands of these and it is highly unlikely that grease filled all those dies over almost two decades in exactly the same way in exactly the same place. The opposite side of the coin where this anomaly is seen on the reverse lines up with the largest part of Lincoln's bust on the obverse of the coin. The demand for metal needed to fill the bottom of Lincoln's bust during the strike effects the amount of metal available to fill in the recesses of the die on the reverse. The areas effected are the ones seen above. These are more likely than not coins that are effected by the strike itself and not by any grease. Thanks, Bill
Good call! They're '85 and '86, so close enough = ) That's good information to have, and it makes perfect sense. Thanks Bill!
