I went through 8 rolls of pennies and came across some good finds but this is one I can't find an explaination for. I thought first, gas bubble, but there should have been more of them so I took a closer look and this was actually stamped in at mint. The spacing was allowed for in the two letters. So then I thought maybe it was time to get some more experienced eyes on this penny. It is a 1997 Lincoln Memorial Cent having the following at the top, " IN GOD W-E TRUST ". There are a few places where grease had filled small pockets of the die and caused some dimpling in a few of the letters on both sides of the coin. The letter S in of the same phrase as I previously mentioned has a mild doubling effect at the bottom of the letter. My real question is: "Why is there a dash here on this cent in the wording??" Any help solving this mystery will be greatly appreciated. This is a photo of the mysterious dash at 100x magnification. This photo was taken at 400x magnification.
5 hours into this and nearly 60 people have seen this post. Any comments are welcomed and appreciated. Comments like, " Hmmm that is strange." Or "Wow that is weird" are just as acceptable.
Well, the dash in WE to me just looks like some kind of bulge in the planchet. Such things happen. The apparent doubling on UST is more interesting. Is there apparent doubling on other parts of the obverse? Just a nice closeup of the obverse might be instructive. To me this looks (in the absence of more information) like Machine Doubling, where the die essentially "bounces " during striking. Here's a really good thread about Machine Doubling vs Die Doubling on another forum: http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=767614 Best Regards, :hail: George
Yes the doubling is nearly what I call phantom outlines that all follow the same direction of doubling effect. It is on the bust as well as in the word LIBERTY and the date. The reverse shows the same doubling. The entire coin has the single double strike look. I believe you are right about the "Bounce". That makes the most sense and surely explains the difference of how the doubling happened. As for the dash in the word "WE". I've given serious concideration to having the coin x-rayed. I'm just not sure if the investment of a precedure like that would be a financially sound idea. If having an x-ray meant the difference of several thousands of dollars, then of course that would make it worth it. Thanks for putting me on track here.
I really doubt it's worth doing that. Glad to help, and good luck! Keep searching those rolls. PS You can still find a lot of cool Kennedy varieties in the 90% silver 1964s and the 40% silver 1965-67 coins as well. Best Regards, :hail: George
