Im new to coin talk so first of all i would like to say hello to everyone, and was wondering if someone can help me figure out what happened to this lincoln cent? There is a line almost all the way around the coin and on the back it looks like 2 die cracks from the bottom corners of the lincoln memorial to the edge. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
welcome to coin talk, what year is your cent? the reason I ask is because another poster had a coin with similar die cracks running out from the edge of the Lincoln Memorial to the rim.
someone correct me if i am wrong (i'm still learning) but the obverse pics are from die deteration. i can't comment on the reverse because i have no clue.
I don't like the "look" of that specimen. Aside from what you're pointing out, something strikes me "funny" about it... though maybe it could be the angle at which the coin was shot...
1986 is the date on the coin i have another from the same year that is similar on the obverse but no die cracks on the reverse
I seem to recall a thread about a lincoln cent with similar die cracks on the reverse so I did a search and came up with this thread. The reverse die cracks are different, but the "ring" on the obverse is the same. That one was attributed to "die deterioration"...whatever that is. I'm just beginning to learn about the modern mint process from the folks here at CT...I really want to take a tour to see operations up close.
The planchart or blanks when punched out sometimes, is cup/convex (No Rim or With Rim). When minted, it gives this outer halo look to the coin. See back of the "Red Book" on misstrickts and errors. The back lines is from die breakage. -O)
Thank you this is very helpfull, i am not familliar with die deterioration. I guess its time for me to do some research.
The guy in the other thread may have just meant the die was overused (cracked). He may not have been refering to the "ring" on the obverse. Quite a bit of pressure is applied during each strike. I'm not sure how dies are constructed, but the "ring" seems like part of the die is beginning to intrude downward, into the detail. That's my best guess, but that's all it is...a speculative WAG.
On another post one of the Lincoln gurus gave some good information on coin rolling machines actually causing some marking on cents, I think it was in reference to moved or altered dates from the action of the machine rolling cents into those tight crimped tubes, perhaps that has something to do with the ring on the ops example?
It seems strange that the words in god we trust are over the top of the line or halo and are not altered by it at all if it were damaged in some way after the mint process it would have altered the words as well. Is it possible that the planchet could have been this way before it was minted ???
