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Message:: [QUOTE="Rick Stachowski, post: 2334700, member: 42872"]Your wrong again ....... In The News ...1995 Wide AM Rev Cent Appears AlteredText by Ken PotterImages by Chuck Daughtrey <img src="http://conecaonline.org//image/19951cFakeWideAM.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Here we see the rotational alignment that this reverse has as compared to the obverse. <img src="http://conecaonline.org//image/1995_wide_rev_c_ArW.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />This Wide AM is of a type showing diagnostics appropriate to the 1980s. <img src="http://conecaonline.org//image/1995_wide_rev_dArW.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Here you can clearly see the seam where the reverse was fit into the obverse shell.  February 04, 2009 (Updated April 27, 2009) -- Privately, many hobby observers knew it was just a matter of time before Lincoln cents altered to bear different <a href="http://www.varietyvista.com/Lincoln%20Cent%20RDV%20Changes.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.varietyvista.com/Lincoln%20Cent%20RDV%20Changes.htm" rel="nofollow">reverse design styles</a> appeared in circulation.  One such suspect coin appeared on on the <a href="http://www.coincommunity.com" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coincommunity.com" rel="nofollow">www.coincommunity.com</a> website late yesterday evening.  The poster showed images of a 1995 Lincoln cent that bore a Wide AM reverse along with a widely rotated reverse.  If it was a legitimate coin, it would have represented a new variety!  However, the problem is that the coin exhibits the diagnostic seam between field of the coin and the rim that shows on many "novelty coins" that have been created by lathing the inside of one coin out into a shell and lathing another coin to reduce its thickness and circumference to a size to fit neatly but snuggly into the shell.  The process is most exacting and difficult to detect unless one knows where to look and is often used to create <a href="http://conecaonline.org/content/TwoHeadsCONECA.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://conecaonline.org/content/TwoHeadsCONECA.htm" rel="nofollow">double headed or double tailed novelty coins</a>, which are sold by novelty outlets and magic shops.  The process is also used to create dual-denomination or dual-country coins where a Kennedy half dollar (for example) might have what appears to be a normal reverse (though most often widely rotated out of proper position with the obverse) but when held in ones forefingers and thumb and jolted against one's knee results in the inlaid section of the coin falling out and revealing a large Mexican 20 Centavos or a British Large penny (of the eras when these coins were copper and of about the size of a Kennedy half dollar) being on the flip side of the reverse inlay.  In fact, over the years whenever somebody at a show hands me a Kennedy half dollar with a rotated reverse, the first thing I do look for the seam and if present, jolt the reverse out of the shell as described above and then like magic hand the bedazzled owner back his coin in two pieces, one showing the Kennedy obverse and the other the foreign coin that was hidden within.  Obviously, when the owner fits the two parts of the coin back together it is most often done without regard to the obverse/reverse orientation resulting in the reverse appearing to be rotated out of proper position.  In spite of being made of two pieces, (a obverse shell and a reverse inlay), these concoctions normally fit together rather snugly and often take several tries to jolt apart.   In recent years Lincoln cents with Roosevelt dime reverses have also been reported but none have been sent for exam allowing me to deduce if they were made in the same manner but I have suspected that at least some were.  Interestingly, the 1995 cent on the coincommunity.com website not only exhibits a rotated die, (suggesting that it might be one of these dual-denomination concoctions), but a Wide AM reverse design style that hasn't been used by the Mints since the 1980s.    Chuck Daughtrey of coppercoins.com, who was one of the posters on the forum said: "The reverse design on this coin is not the typical Wide-AM as was used on proofs that year ... like all of the other mismatched reverse coins, which are of the proof design for that year. This design most closely matches the design abandoned after 1985. The shape of the letters is not right for any coin minted during the 1990s. Given the seam, the rotation, the very incorrect design, and the fact that this is the only example known, I am relatively certain this one was manufactured from two separate coins."  So what insiders have been fearing might happen for years, appears to have finally come true!  See the suspect coin here:  <a href="http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=42000" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=42000" rel="nofollow">http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=42000</a>   Updated: April 27, 2009 -- At this point in time both Chuck  Daughtrey and I have examined the coin and confirmed that it is an alteration made from two different coins joined together as described above.[/QUOTE]

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