Iv'e seen two post of Close and wide am's, can somebody tell me the story behind this? 1992 error is a close am and 1998 and 2000 wide am is an error? Im a little confused please help me out
Close AM, (CAM) and Wide AM (WAM) refers to the amount of space between the bottom of the A & M in the word America on the reverse of Lincoln Memorial Cents.
What's stated above plus if you have a WAM error the normal strike for this coin is to have the letters close (AM), and if you have a CAM error the normal strike for these are wide (A M) in AMERICA on the Lincoln cent. I know this is almost a restatement but it didn't mention the normal strike, and that was confusing to me when these vary from year to year.
For these any business strike dating before 1993 is a wide AM, and some 93's I believe. The switch to close AM was made in 93, therefore making a close AM 92 very, very rare. After 93 I believe the wide AM's were reserved for proof coins only. In 98, 99, and 2000 there were runs of coins struck with the wide AM dies, which they were not supposed to be. I may have said something a little wrong, or missed something, but that is the basics of the whole thing.
The varieties came about because some of the business strike cents were minted with NIFC reverse proof dies. Like the Type B Washington quarters. The WAM (Wide A M in AMERICA) are the 97-00 rare varieties. Normal for those years is the close AM (CAM). The 1992 D CAM (Close A M) is a transition coin. The Dies with the WAM changed in 1993 to the close variety but a very few of the 1992 D haved been discovered that had the 1993 reverse die, hence the CAM variety. Another rare variety is the 1988 reverse 89 transition cent. Rare for the Phillys and nearly non-esistent for the Denvers. Actually, only 3 or 4 have been authenticated by TPG's. Much info is available on the Lincoln Resource web site, with pics, descriptions, etc. Grab a couple of rolls and compare the reverses for the 92 and earlier to the 93 and later ones to get a good idea of what you are searching for. gary
http://www.lincolncentresource.com/Featured/1992DcloseAM.html http://www.lincolncentresource.com/Top50.html
The 92 D CAM can be worth a few thou, the P more. 97 WAM is the rarest of those varieties and can be worth a few hundred. 88 reverse 89 Philly 50 bucks and up. No records of a D being sold. Saw one a few months ago listed for 12k.
Thank you for those links! Lots of questions that I had are answered in those links so I'll be doing some serious reading.
Lot of good info here. I'm learnig of new types of coins everyday here that is not mentioned in the Red Book.
There are so many really rare dies and varieties that are omitted by even specialized books that you need to read a lot of info from various sources. But I learned as much or more here than anyplace else. gary.
