hello guys need some input on thisc74 ok both in these pic are the same year the one wih the WY stamp is a normal looking penny now the black one is different look at the coat and the heir also the face structure it all looks like from a older die even the metal is different the color is like a black / dark reddish in the light it looks older then a normal looking penny any help is much appreciated
Both are worth face value. Maybe a bit more for the WY. One was minted by an older worn die. The same one has been heavier circulated. That's why the differences.
thats what i was thinking it was minted with an older die thank you i guess i was right about the older die cool thank u
44 years .. who knows which die for each cent was used sooner than the other. Dies wear out and are replaced all the time. But the color or wear has nothing to do with different dies. The color has to do with the environment it has been in the past 44 years .. or maybe just the past 6 months. The wear .. you never know when one was in someone's cookie jar for the past 30 years and the other was in someone else's cookie jar for 20 years. You'd have to put RFID on each and every coin to track what they've been through and who'd had them in their life.
The color has absolutely nothing to do with a worn die strike.. It's just 44 years of environmental toning.. In other words, it is dirty! The other Cent is known as a counterstamp. It's done after the Mint. Damaged. Both worth 1 Cent
Plus they used multiple presses at the same time, AND back then they were used quad strike presses that had four dies and struck four coins at the same time. Trying to establish an emission sequence of use for dies then would be pretty much impossible.
It's called a novelty cent. Hundreds have been made using various themes. They are all forms of counter stamps.
The WY stands for Wyoming and that is the shape of the state as well. (That box it is inside.) It's not engraved, it is counter stamped. There are probably 50 of these, 1 for every state, and the shape. I recall seeing an Indiana? in another thread. No extra value on either as Paddy said.