Looking at the 9 i think its a LG DT. But the 7 seems like its high.... Whats the beat way to tell the difference???
By studying this date in the Red Book, I actually found 3 ways that work for me : Of course the height of the 7 is the most known and maybe? the best.However, if you look at the gap between the S and the 7, it's different between the L and S. Also, look at the inside curve of the 9, one will be shorter and rounded, the other will be longer and more pointed. I've pored over those photos in the book with a magnifying glass to find the differences. Don't ask me which is which, because I can't do it without the Book in hand, just like I can't tell which is the wide or close AM with out referring to the book.
Telling the difference was always so hard for me, I just gave up. You could show me the diagrams and talk about the low and high 7's and I still can't really see it most of the time. Really, I'm surprised such a tiny variation got classified as a variety in the Red Book. But then, I guess I just never cared much.
Yeah, when you first start in the hobby and you think you've found a $55.00 penny , it's a big deal, but after you graduate to collecting ancients worth possibly thousands, that $55.00 penny isn't such a big deal after all.
Those were never $55.00 pennies in my US coin collecting days. I've gotten older and still can't quite get my head around any Lincoln Memorial cent as being worth attention. It's an old fogey thing, I guess. (* I'm not that old- only 53 this month, but I've been in the hobby since 1976 so I've seen a lot of mileage as a collector and have developed biases and preferences like any longterm collector does.) It's true I collect ancients, but I don't have any worth thousands. Some are worth closer to that $55 quote you mentioned.
For me the easiest way to identify the difference is the top inside end of the "9", the small date is pointed and the large date is blunt. small date. large date,
I just started seriously collecting in 2010.Do you remember the recession of 2008-2010? Until 2008 I was a highly paid land surveyor. Laid off in 2008, I didn't find another job until 2010, and even then it was just a minimum wage cashier in a retail store, BUT access to the money in the register allowed me to start finding wheats and the occasional Indian head and war nickel. That is when and how my serious coin collecting started. That $55 # comes from the Red book but I think we all know no one ever buys or sells at the book price. I've never sold a coin anyway. Never tried and don't think I ever will. I just hope I can get my children interested in coins enough to learn how to evaluate them so that when I'm gone and they liquidate my "estate" (lol) they don't get taken to the cleaners and sell them for pennies on the dollar. No pun intended.
you can also look at the left part of the middle of the 9... is it pointed to the right or down diagonal to the right. you can put a credit card there to use as a line.
Absolutely Large Date, zero doubt. By the way, the small date circulation version is a much smaller part of the total pie than the small date proof version is, but not by raw numbers, only by percentage.
I don't think the mint mark is a diagnostic, is it? Weren't they punched by hand? edit: OP's coin is large date
The mint mark location is an INDICATOR, but not a diagnostic. All known SD's have a "high and tight" mintmark, but the converse is not true. So you can eliminate all "low" mintmarks.
