I’d love some help from the forum on this beautiful (if authentic) S-VDB. Coin Talk allows me to zoom in very close on photos (far closer than my phone does) so hopefully this checks out. Thanks in advance!
I'm really in no position to authenticate one of these myself, but as an exercise: Mint mark position, orientation, and shape seem to match Position 4. Slope in middle of B for VDB appears correct. The dot after B looks right, but there's too much noise/toning/texture for me to be sure where the dot after D is, and even more so for V. Can you shoot the reverse again with strong oblique light to emphasize the design/relief?
The first of your new round of images shows all three dots in the right place, according to the reference I'm using at the moment: https://coinweek.com/counterfeit-coin-09-s-vdb/ I think you may have a winner!
Buying raw rare coins that have a known history of counterfeiting is always nerve wracking. There’s no real formula for what to pay. It’s always a cost/risk/confidence balance. Hopefully this one worked out in my favor.
"N" looks correct: My Coin Week article for reference: https://coinweek.com/from-the-dark-corner-an-authenticated-1909-s-vdb-lincoln-cent/
I can see the die chip in the upper loop of the S, the VDB and everything else looks good to me. Looks to be VF35/EF40 too. CONRATS!
I’m not sure how long this has been publicized. I first heard about it in a CU thread a couple of years ago about shallow and deep N’s. All SVDB’s have only the shallow N.
It's been posted here as early as 2009: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-to-tell-if-your-1909-s-v-d-b-is-real.78043/ I know I had seen it, but I hadn't remembered it in this thread until Jack mentioned it.
