I finally figured out how to get these coin capsules open, but I am not overly fond of my method of doing so. Anyways, without further adieu, here is my underweight LMC with a grease strike through on the reverse. Found inside of a glass piggy bank (of sorts) full of pennies while sorting them. The jar presumably sat in my dad's basement filing cabinet untouched for 40 years (last dated coin was 1983) until I decided to sort them. I'm sure it's not something overly expensive, but it's priceless to me because of sentimental reasons. What are your thoughts? Personally, I think it might classify as red but the photos kind of make it look RB. Thanks again for your time and opinions!
I'm still learning here, and this seems to be more confusing than not. Could you please explain the difference? I've tried reading up on it but hearing it in simpler terms might do me well!
The look you see on the reverse can be found on plenty of 60's and 70's coins. It boils down to the amount of metal needed to fill out Lincolns bust. When the two dies strike a planchet the majority of the metal flow goes to Lincolns design. When the strike isn't strong enough or and underweight planchet is struck. There isn't enough metal to finish the memorial design.
I had noticed this excerpt from NGC regarding die adjustment strikes vs strike through, but thinking about it more, your explanation does make more sense to me now. "The edge of a die adjustment strike will be either weak or missing. This is an important difference from a struck thru which has full edge detail."
The highest points of the coin will be the lowest points in the die and the last to fill with metal when struck. So it makes sense that an underweight planchet wouldn't have enough metal to completely fill the design. Cool cent, I've never found anything out of tolerance.
+1 for weakness of strike. Note how all the weak areas on the reverse coincide with the thickest design features of the obverse. All those areas are the most common areas for strike weakness on LWC's and LMC's.
