1992 Strange Error

Thanks again guys, I'll take a closer look in a week and let you know what I see. I guess based on the responses, Bill is most likely right but a couple different views under the scope at different angles and then if necessary some more aggressive probing should help understand what is going on. If Bill is right there is nothing I can do that will affect the value. If he is wrong then the minimal value that might have been there to begin with will not really matter.

 

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This is simple...any single spot where the copper plating is compromised can result in a spot of rot forming. It can be in one tiny place and nowhere else on the coin. The underlying zinc is incredibly reactive to the environment.

The spot can take on any shape depending upon the shape of the "injury" to the coin and how the copper plating was damaged.

The fact that it happens to resemble a letter is coincidental and we have seen that here at least twenty times on other threads where zinc rot caused an issue. The last one I can think of is Michelle's coin with a single spot of rot. That coin was sent off to be looked at by Ken Potter and it came back as , in fact being a spot of rot (What I said from day one).

A recent email that I had had a person asking how a line of D's got on the front of his Lincoln cent. The answer was that under magnification, the "D"s were damage caused by the reeded edge of another coin. The damage happened to look like D's as the rot progressed.

The last thing is that there is no part of the minting process that could cause this.

Actually, this is my last point for now. I've seen this tens of thousands of times on coins that I search through. If I can't instantaneously identify a spot of rot by now, i should give up trying

I don't ever guess on something unless I say that I am guessing. I've been at this a long time and there isn't much that I haven't seen first hand, more times than i could ever count.

Thanks,
Bill

 

A coin in hand tells more than a photo at time.