Prooflike 46-S Lincoln Cent

I was looking through a BU 1946-S roll and found a single prooflike Cent. It's very different looking than a regular Cent, with reflective surfaces and deep toning. Here it is along with a comparative photo of a regular coin from same roll:

 

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I do not believe so. It appears that the edges are chamfered ( rounded) for circulation rather than the sharp right angles of a proof. They also don't have the look of a proof coin. Some circulation coins are also highly reflective .

 

I'm not saying it's a Proof Cent. There were no proofs struck in 1946, especially not at San Francisco, so not only could it not be a proof, it can't even be a coin struck from old proof dies re-purposed for business strike use. All I'm saying is that it has reflective surfaces, which is very unusual for business strike Cents of this era. It's doubtful any TPG would grade it as a PL, but nevertheless it does have PL qualities.

 

I don't know anything about proofs in the 40s but I do have a question about the roll. It doesn't look like BU with the scratches and the stains on the coin. I've been looking at old (supposedly) rolls on eBay for 30s, 40s and 50s but I'm still not sure if I should buy it. It's like 5.00 over the actual value of the roll.

 

"BU" is a subjective term, with some folks saying that UNC=MS60, BU=MS63, ChBU=MS64, and GemBU=MS65. I would expect this coin to grade MS63RB (or possibly MS63RD) given the hits on obverse and spots on reverse.

As for eBay rolls, Caveat Emptor! I have purchased hundreds of rolls on eBay, and have been extremely careful, but some of the rolls were very disappointing. The roll I got this PL coin from was a coin shop purchase, so I was able to look through it before buying to ensure it was a truly BU roll.

 

I wouldn't buy 'unsearched' (or similar wording) rolls on ebay. They've been searched, and you won't get anything of super value.

 

If you are thinking of buying a roll on eBay, post the link and we'll give you honest opinions. Not all "unsearched" rolls have been searched, but the probability is high they have.

 

I think at this point, 60 years after the last wheat cent was minted, that all of these rolls have been searched. Maybe not for minor varieties and minor errors, but for key dates and majors, I'd bet my collection that 99.999999999% of those 'unsearched rolls' won't have a single moderately semi-key date or decent variety/error. There are a lot of eyes looking at these coins over 60+ years.

 

I took a look at the rolls for sale right now with keywords "unsearched BU cent roll" and indeed I must agree with you. Not a single one of those auctions is worth looking at. I also did a search for "OBW Cent roll" and found the same thing. Looks like there are many more and creative scams than I remember from my last purchases a while back.

edited to add: I do personally own hundreds of unsearched OBW rolls, so I know they exist, just not for sale on eBay.

 

It's not really PL, it's just has better quality surfaces.

 

Thanks for all the tips, I'm actually interested in finding coins in about uncirculated (what I call a pretty shiny penny) as I'm thinking of starting with that with my collections. I'm not that much interested in varieties or errors at this point, just want to impress people I'm going to show my collection to with the shiny coins. Most of them won't know a thing about coins lol but maybe I'll get them interested.

I'm still learning identifying errors so that's going to be sometime in the future when I start buying those and I'll definitely post here for opinions/advice before I start buying (thank you in advance lol)

Thanks again!

 

Same could be said about many PL Morgans. So what makes a coin PL? Certainly if it was struck from a retired proof die it could have PL qualities. But if it has PL qualities, why wouldn't it be PL? I'm not sure how the TPGs define PL other than the reflectivity of the fields, which this coin has to a good degree.

 

Here is a pic of the two coins side by side with reflective/in-hand lighting:

 

I think the reason for lack of PL grading for copper coins, is that silver and nickel have a much more reflective surfaces, most because of the high reactivity of fresh copper.

 

I would be careful buying rolls from eBay unless you know the seller. Some of these guys will sell a roll of say 1939 and they are all worn so bad that the best in the roll might be a G-4 . Not all are like that, but try and locate estate auctions and purchase rolls from them. I got some really good UNC rolls from a past collector, when the family auctions off all of the coins. Be patient they come up every once and a while. I also purchased 3 rolls of what was called unsearched Buffalo nickels , and on each end of the roll was a decent 1936 and all the others inside were absolute garbage every single one was not worth having . Some of them had glue on them ,some had been burned, others were worn so bad there was no coin left etc.Not worth sending back because of shipping costs etc. Live and Learn. buy from friends , well known dealers that are decent, and be patient there are a lot of UNC pennies out there in collections that sooner or later will be sold to you and me. !!

 

Could you position the coin to show it reflecting something? More images might change my opinion of "not PL."

 

Here is the coin in a jig I built to show reflectivity. The jig has a V-cut, 45-deg each side. The coin sits on a true grey surface, and other surface is a piece of card stock with black felt pen lines drawn every 2mm. So the lines at the bottom are very close to the coin, while lines at the top are far away (~27mm away).

You can see a solid reflection off the close fields, and then a reduced reflection off the far fields, and almost none off the devices.