I have been searching through an old jar of pennies that daddy had and found this 1964 Lincoln Cent .. I'm curious to see what other opinions are about this coin.. I assume it was caught up in some type of machinery to cause its fatal outcome.. I still like it though.. Ideas?? I know it's post mint damage, impossible for them to let this escape..
Looks to me like lawnmower damage. I know that sounds strange, and strangely specific, but I've dug coins while out detecting that looked just like that. Seems they got lost in the grass, and while they were still on the surface, before they sank into the ground, along came the mower, and sucked 'em up into the blades, and - whang! - there ya go. You can even imagine the sound. Yes, even with hits on opposite sides like that. I suppose the lawnmower blades go around fast enough that the coin can get hit several times (*whang! *pow*pow*pow*clank*) before it drops back out onto the ground and eventually sinks into the earth. Uless it gets another lawnmower-whirlie first! But yeah- machinery damage of some kind. You're right about that. I dunno for sure that it was a lawnmower involved, but it was definitely some kind of mishap like that.
It's neat though.. I like it.. Going to keep it for the grandkids.. you can see the date and obverse side pretty good.. give them a good story to tell.. TY
When I was a kid and first started collecting on Thanksgiving Day of 1976, I was at my grandmother's house in Atlanta and found a 1936 dime in her sideboard while getting the silverware out to set the table. She gave it to me. I still have that one- my first collected coin. But there was also a warped and misshapen 1948 Franklin half dollar in the drawer, with a big ragged hole right through the middle of it. I would look at that coin as nothing but an undesirable piece of scrap silver nowadays, but Young Kid Me wanted it, back then. Grandmomma wouldn't give that one to me, though. It seems one of the uncles, years ago, had thrown it in the air and shot the hole in it with a rifle, Annie Oakley style, and it got kept as a souvenir.
Great story.. I have been collecting for my daddy since I was very young.. He preferred perfection and I was always drawn to the unfortunate error coins.. Sometimes he would keep them just to make me feel better about my little finds.. I have some good old stuff of his with no errors.. but I never realized how tedious the process was of distinguishing mint from post mint damage.. I was fascinated when I read how the error coins were described at the auctions.. I don't know what it is with me and the errors, I guess because they stand out from the rest.. But I just can't ever get a good picture of anything.. Could you see those pictures clearly??
Nice Mercury Dime.. I see why you're holding it.. I have a few of daddy's left.. I'm going to tell you the most horrible lesson I have ever learned about coin collecting.. I still get upset about it.. Daddy had been collecting since he was a little boy and I was the only child he had that showed passion for it like he did.. He had an extremely expensive collection with just about every coin you could imagine.. And he had a thing for 2 dollar bills and Silver Certificates.. Oh yeah, and his beloved Morgan's and Susan B. Anthony's!! Lol.. Something happened and he decided he would sell some of his coins and I jumped at the chance to let me do it.. I had never read much about collecting, just followed his lead.. I thought I would really get him a better profit if I polished all his silver coins.. Which was the majority of his precious collection.. When I met with the appraiser, he immediately became ugly and told me I had ruined his whole collection.. then had the nerve to offer ridiculous prices for the coins.. I was devastated!! Daddy took it a lot better than I did.. I cried for 2 months!! That is something a new collector should know about from the beginning.. Never polish your coins!!
