Lincoln Cents from the ‘60s

1969-S


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1969-S Proof
This wraps up the 1960’s. Maybe we can try another decade another time - except for those ugly shield cents!

This proof still has that slightly pinkish color that soon starts to turn more red, then brown. The obverse detail is much better than the 1968-S proof. The reverse, however, has lost most of the steps.
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What's the orangish-brown line under V.D.B. on your 1969-S business strike cent?

 

That’s a really good question. Here’s detail of the original photo.



It can’t be a scratch, because it’s in a protected crevice. To reach down that far, both the rim and bust would have to be scratched too.

It looks like some kind of a strikethrough. It is very clean with a very well defined shape. A piece of thread would bend or loop, and this looks like it must have been quite sturdy.

The curvature actually looks about the same as the rim. It almost looks like a bit of wire. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say a tiny bit of copper flashing got pinched between the edge of the dies when striking the previous coin. This may have then fallen into the dies or onto the planchet as this cent was struck, causing the depression we see here.

I wonder if the bullseye spot of corrosion is related to contamination from whatever was struck into the copper?

I will see if I can get the camera to zoom even closer on just this area to see more detail. I will come back with that if I can.

 

Well, this was a surprise… I took a picture and the so-called “strikethrough” had moved!


Since it now looked like a small bristle, I hit it with a puff of air and it moved again.


A rinse in xylene whisked it away for good.


This, I guess, is science. Make a hypothesis, test it, and throw it out and try again.

I got new pictures, at any rate.

 

Bonus: 1964-D
I replaced the 1964-D shown earlier with this one, because of damage to the reverse of the original.



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