Yup you are right about the date 1938... Maybe a die chip on his nose common on wheat cents. And the pictures are of what? Didn't ask anything about that. And it looks damaged to me on his head.
The mark on the head is Post mint Damage from being hit with another coin. Could have been done when someone opened a roll of cents on the edge of a cash register drawer. No value added. Very nice photos.
Half of my post didn't go through, it only uploaded the tail end of what I was trying to say.. We live out in the country, so the internet isn't the greatest. My boyfriend purchased a bunch of wheat rolls from an old man in his 70s and we've been looking through them searching for errors and different oddities. This coin without a doubt is an improper alloy mix (may not be able to tell from the photos), but we were both unsure about the crack on Lincoln's head. We find coins like these every now and then, but it's not common (out of 200 rolls). Could you guys provide any examples of other coins that have suffered "Post Mint Damage" of this type if that is what happened to this penny? Professional opinions/pictures only please. We've went through what feels like a million wheats, so anything out of the norm like this quickly stands out. To me, the raised spot looks like a die break. My boyfriend believes that the cracked spot underneath resembles lamination (which we've seen a lot of).
It has been scraped by something. By What? Who knows.i had one that looks like this. Just think how could this happen at the mint? Go on you tube and watch how the mint errors were made. It will help.
Fifth picture down is a "lamination." There's your "improper alloy mix." At times those even peel off, in which case they're "detached laminations." That gash on the head looks like post-mint damage. The 8 looks like it's just smashed down a little. That "wart" on the nose, you're looking at these too hard, it's nothing.
The obverse wear is vg8, the reverse wear maybe a bit better at f12. NGC lists this date at .18 and .25, respectively, for a normal, undamaged, non-cleaned and no-details coin. This one has lots of "details". Couple the PMD, the wear, the flattened, squashed date, the minor die chip on the nose...eddiespin pointed out most of the issues and MichaelK had the value spot on...in my professional opinion (but still a humble one)...Spark
For this coin...what lamination value would it have if not negated by the huge gouge in the head? $1.00 insread of .03? My view is that the gouge severely limits any value. Even the average of the 2 limits is only 51.5 cents. Seriously, does lamination error impart that much more of a premium? I saw the lamination mentioned earlier in the post, but discounted it because of the PMD and wear. Spark
