It's an RPM.. I'm leaning towards the WRPM-005 with a chance of it being WRPM-004. Both appear similar, but the lower ball on the serif appears to be more split on the 005 similar to yours. You can check the other diagnostics over here.. http://www.doubleddie.com/754628.html
Agreed. @Dough, see how the lower "knob" on the MM is clearly split? That's a smoking gun for a genuine RPM; machine doubling won't do that. It's conceivable you could explain the rest of the apparent doubling away as MD, but not that.
Excellent reference! Thank you. I'm leaning toward 004 as well. Unfortunately, I can't see or image the markers in United (004) or America (005) through the toning. Markers around the mouth and chin might have been polished away.
That's what got me thinking rpm, but I couldn't find an S that matched what the bottom of one S of this style would look like. I expected the bottom "knob" to be more round. So I came here asking for a fish, and @jtlee321 showed me where to fish for myself.
You know, I'm not really seeing this as a perfect match for -004, either. That one is stated to be a Normal/Inverted or Inverted/Normal MM, and the split bottom serifs on yours sure look like the same serif. It almost looks like Inverted/Inverted. A little more detail: http://varietyvista.com/06 Mercury Dime/1945SRPM004.htm
This is the closeup from Wexler's for the WRPM-005. The split serifs and the apparent lack of die file marks is what has me leading towards it.
