Hello! I'm new to this incredible forum and am glad to have found all of you. I started collecting coins, mostly cents, since I was a kid, but have let it lapse for the past many (many) years. My son is starting to get interested, so I'm trying to get back into it now. Anyway, I was looking through my penny hoard, and found several rolls of 1955-S BU cents. Naturally I went looking for a double strike, to no avail. However, I found so many other errors that I started getting suspicious that these coins are counterfeit. For example, I found 6 with the BIE die break, all are nearly identical. There are other erros that seem to be in series as well (die break pre-cud stage along right wheat stalk), that I found several of. Plus, some with one or both 5's filled (top). Out of 8 rolls, I found over 50 coins with some sort of error. Doesn't that seem a bit high? These were not mint rolls, they were in tubes. I've had them for over 20 years, never opened them up until yesterday. I will post photos if anyone thinks they can give any guidance as to how to evaluate these.
Well, I don't know how counterfeiters think... but what if these were the "non-premium" (eg, non double strikes) that were made at the same time. It's just so odd that there are so many of the same error. Plus, some have a weird striated toning thing that I don't think I've seen before. Some of the toning on many is a yellowish-greenish. It's just a weird batch, and I don't have rolls of other BU wheaties to compare. I will photograph more as I can and post (can't seem to get the image inserted into the messge though) Here's one with the tone stripe -- this one goes through the 5 and the s below it:
to Cointalk Dot. I had just about decided to congratulate you on knowing the difference between a "cent" and a "penny" when I got to the third paragraph of your initial post. Unfortunately, I don't have any expertise at all relevant to your question, so I'll leave it to better qualified forum members to help you out.
"Penny" is a British and Commonwealth denomination. "Cent" is the name used for the value 1/100th of a dollar in the US (and many other countries); and the US hasn't been governmentally affiliated with the British Empire/Commonwealth for more than two centuries!.
Welcome to the forum! This first one looks like a retained strike through error. Strike through errors are on the common side, retained strike throughs.....not so much. I'll leave it to the experts to guess a value, but a fun find!
lawdog may well be correct, I was thinking the first one looked like a lamination error where the delaminated portion of the planchet got folded over itself when the coin was struck. As for the BIE errors, looks to me like they all came from the same die and were probably all in the same roll. If you look close you can see minor differences in each one as the strikes progressed. Many collectors like to collect these progressions. The toning is not really that unusual, copper often tones all colors of the rainbow. But it is pretty
Can I see a few more shots of this coin? I'm staying on the lamination side of this fence right now, but lawdogct might be onto something. Wouldn't be the first time! Thanks, Michael
Sure, thanks for all the comments, too. I don't know the difference between a lamination error and a retained strike through -- how could I show the detail you need to determine this? I am using a (low end, toy almost) microscope with a USB connection -- it has a top light source, and I also have a small LED light I am using to highlight detail from certain angles. Thus various colors in different shots. These are 60x (there's also a 10x and a 200x) Here are a few more. Let me know what areas you want to see better, and which angle to direct the light (or, what you are looking at/for).
Actually, this is not odd at all when it come to die breaks, etc. They die went bad, and the coins subsequently struck will all have the error. If these are original rolls then it would make sense for a lot of them to be in there.
From the pics, the 1955-S Cent appears to have several problems in the area in question! It appears the the planchet was defective, the coin was struck through a lamination and a Die Break may have also been involved. Mere pictures alone probably won't help in determining all of the problems the coin encountered and a closeup, in-hand inspection would be needed. The 1955-S Cents are known for many errors such as the "BIE" error, filled letters and digits as well as several Varieties of RPM's. So, it is not out of the ordinary to find so many coins with errors in 8 rolls! I purchased a roll of BU Red 1955-P Lincoln Cents from a Coin Dealer and assumed that they had been searched and that I would be out of luck finding any errors. Well, when I finally got around to checking the coins, I found that I was seriously mistaken. Out of the 50 BU Red Cents, 43 of them were of the Poorman's Double Die Variety and 3 were Doubled Die #2 Varieties and all of the coins in the roll ranged in grades from MS-63 to MS-66. I sold the 3 Doubled Die #2 Cents for a total of $900 and still have the Poorman's Double Die Cents. Not bad for a $15 dollar purchase! Make sure that you recheck all of the coins for RPM errors. The 1955-S is well known for many "S" over "S" (S/S) and many "S" over "S" over "S" (S/S/S) repunched mintmarks which bring fairly nice premiums. Frank
May I just say... WOW!! 43 out of 50?? LOL, I think the coin dealer mistakenly sold you his "error" roll! What a rush that must have been, finding all those. The San Francisco mint sure was, er, a bit sloppy in 1955 weren't they?
Dot, I have found so many 1955-P "Poorman's Double Die" Cents that it was a welcome surprise but not really a rush! I really got the rush when I found the first Doubled Die #2, then the second, then the third in the roll! Also, it was really nice to find so many high grade Lincoln's in the roll. Philadephia and Denver were just as sloppy if not more so, considering all of the Doubled Die Cents produced by both and the RPM Errors produced at Denver! I am not sure whether the blame should lie with the Mints or the Year! LOL! Frank
