Could this be a 1914 proof wheat penny. It has the grainy fields and really squarish edges and overall details. I compared it to some brown 1914 proof wheat cents, and it looks quite similar. However, I'm not very interested in early proof wheat pennies, so I would like some help from the people that know more than I do. Thanks foe any help!
I'm not the MPL expert here, but those "grainy" fields look a lot like a considerable amount of contact marks. The strike is not nearly strong or crisp enough to be a proof. And those edges are way too round and mushy to even consider being a proof. In my opinion, this is absolutely and definitely not a proof. Compare yours to the genuine examples here: https://coins.ha.com/c/search-resul...231+308+573+4013&ic4=Refine-USCoinYear-102615 You'll quickly see that yours does not look like those.
Uh I dont think it is. The rim looks a bit uneven. Also the bust details arent sharp enough. Just because it has grainy surfaces doesn't make it a matte proof. For example: Same coin before NGC Early die state business strikes can exhibit the same qualities as a Matte Proof. My avatar coin also is an early die state business strike with grainy surfaces. Even the rim's appeared squared sometimes, but they wont be perfectly squared all the away around. A true MPL will be the most well struck bust of Lincoln you'll ever see with the cleanest mark-free surfaces. Even the nicest MS business strikes have planchet marks. You see the MPL planchets never touched each other before striking. Therefore they never had planchet contact marks. These marks will usually still be visible on Lincoln's shoulder as theymawont always get erased from the strike in this area. So for future reference if a Lincoln in Mint State looks to be matte proof look to the shoulder, the Matte Proof will have a clean shoulder. Ops coin would need to be examined for die markers if it is an impaired proof, but I doubt it is. More nicked up than grainy IMO.
Also if you look at 11-12 o'clock on the obverse of ops coin, you'll see the rim appears to shift at a downward slope towards Lincoln. A matte proof will have a perfectly flat rim, no sloping.
