Can anyone tell me if this would be a weak strike coin? I'm new to the whole collecting scene. The "of" on the back of this penny is almost not visible. At first i thought it was just worn and than i noticed the other words around (of) wasn't worn. Naturally i took interst in but is completely lost. Plz help me someone. Thx
Welcome to CT it appears to be a grease filled die. Also it helps when posting pics if you would post both sides of the coin. IMO Dave
It is actually a design issue. There isn't enough metal in that area of the planchet to easily fill the letters on the reverse and Abe's coat on the obverse. When the planchets were solid copper, the mint could turn up the striking pressure enough to push metal into this area of the coin, but when they converted to copper plated zinc, the pressure split open the copper revealing the zinc core. Most all of the cents in this era show weakness in this area of the coin.
@Hommer is correct. Even though it looks like a filled die error, weakness in this area is due to the lack of metal flow.
June’s a great time to go on strike. Weathers is not to hot and not to cold to stand the line and carry the sign. Lol. Reed and Sparkles the Unicorn.
That hood ornament...is that a Pontiac? What year? I guess 1948. About the weak strike...I thought the weak letters was die polishing error, can anyone post a comparison for my, and others, erudition? Spark
For the sake of those who will come after us, I pulled the change out of my pocket and photographed these: 1988 D 1990 D 1993 P 1987 D 1988 D
Don't usually use pennies, er, cents but I happened to look at change I recently received an noticed the same mint error on mine that shows on yours, you know, the lower case "o" in "oF"!!! I wonder how many oF those are out there, & what they might be worth??? (Posting with the hope of responses I'm expecting.)
Yes. The obverse immediately opposite this area has Lincoln's shoulder. A lot of metal needs to flow in this region to fill it. Initially, it is easier for the metal to flow into the this large, unobstructed area than it is to fill the small letters (Less pressure to fill the larger area). So the letters and fine detail fill in last. There can be filled dies and polishing, but the main reason you see so many soft STATES and oF on coins from this era is the explanation @Hommer gave.
Thank You, Sir. As this effect is so common, the challenge is to find zincolns that received strong strikes. Then again, you could have a strong obverse with a weak reverse, and vice versa. I don't think copper plated zincs with missing or weak letters, such as the ones Hommer posted, will ever become sought after like the '22 No D. The reason is that there are billions of them with the effect, whereas the '22s are very hard to find or own due to scarcity. If I remember correctly, 4 die pairs have been identified as having produced the '22 series, and there just aren't many, if any, to be found today.
