I've been reading posts on cointalk for a while now, and have found the questions and associated answers highly informational. I've now accumulated a few weirdies, and could use some help figuring them out. This one's pretty easy, though. It is or it ain't. I found this coin while searching a roll of contemporary pennies. I think it's 1998 Wide AM, but I'm not sure. It's definitely wider than common 1998's, but it seems to me that it's not quite as wide as others. It's .17 mm between the bases, btw. As you can see, the coin's not in the best of condition, with little black dots all over the reverse and a few on the front. Can those be removed without damaging the value of the coin? Any assistance offered will be greatly appreciated. I have a few other oddities I'm curious about, but I'll post them in separate threads. Thanks!
Congrats! Looks like you've got yourself a WAM! If you look at the spacing at the bottom of the letters of America, The difference (spacing) between the A and the M and the M and the E are equal. That wouldn't happen with a close AM. Also the PUP (Pick up point) for this is the initials FG being close to the monument, and on your coin it is!
Nope, the clad layer is there. I have a new Celestron 44320-A digital scope and it puts out too much light via the LED's. I think I might paint a couple of them over.
I don't think you should paint over the led. Certainly a digital scope is great, but it's not for everything.
There are six of them. I thought I'd blank them out one at a time til i get to the light level i want.
Hopefuly you meant a 1992D CLOSE AM. The default state for all 1992's, both P and D is wide. while roll searching I've seen a number of 'really wide' 1992 coins as well as 'sorta close' ones. I actually posted a thread asking about the close ones titled 'how close is close?' and the consensus was that the A and M gotta be touching to be a true Close AM.
