According to the Dave Bowers story, he found a cigarette machine that was dispensing packs with 1955 doubled die cents in them. You put 30 cents in the machine and got back the cigarettes with two cents change. He said he stood at the machine and bought out its contents. Some people say that the exposure to the tobacco caused many 1955 doubled dies to lose their red color. The coin is hard to find with mint red despite that the fact that the variety was spotted quite early. It was first listed in “The Red Book” in 1959. My guess is these coins ended up in albums and coin envelopes and not in the middle of coin rolls and the like where they would have been more protected from light and the elements. Many 1955 doubled die cents were issued in New England. A collector I knew when I lived there told me that he and his father enhanced their collection from the sale of many 1955 doubled dies that they found in circulation. Here's mine, a Choice AU with no red.
...putting into perspective... 1955 DDO brown ...awe inspiring. 1955 DDO red brown in AU...awesome! 1955 DDO red in MS...incredibly awesomer! I don’t think I am the first to coin (no pun intended) the word “awesomer”, but I like to think I am and it needs to be added to not only American lexicon, but also to Funk and Wagnalls. ...jmho...Spark
Same here. The toning can be really pretty, and you don’t have to worry about the value halving due to the coin changing in the holder
It sounds like it was a better trade off if you ended up with a better example in higher grade now ... than her! (;