What is wrong with this one?

"Strike" is often misused. Usually folks mean "details". The OP's coin has poor detail but may have been well struck.

A coin can have weak details for many reasons. Dies may have been overworked, they may have been liberally spaced to extend die life, a planchet may be thin or irregular in thickness, grease can get in the way, the planchet may have been improperly annealed, the alloy mix was incorrect. Even rim upsetting can affect how well the metal flows.

I am a little leery about the streaking of the OP's coin. I have seen this effect with coins that have been darkened with Deller's. But maybe not. Like Doug says, you'd be surprised how often copper color is messed with.

It appears PCGS was quick to BB it but I'll bet it wouldn't happen five times in a row. Maybe the grader, during his 5 second assessment, was a little grumpy. Still, it is obviously not worth multiple submissions in order to get justice.

The '20-S is one of the most challenging of the series. I have been looking for more than five years for a nice upgrade to the 64RB below. When it comes, if it comes, I know I will pay dearly.
Lance.

 

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Yea, good luck with that quest Lance! That 20-S is probably the best one I've seen. The full red ones I've seen are not very pleasing and I suspect that's why you ended up with a RB coin......knowing your eye.

 

Very nice coin for a '20-S . I wouldn't upgrade , that's a beauty of a coin for that date .

 

There is damage on the back left wheat stalk, on the top left. or is that lamination ?
Will also say that the coin was recolored after being cleaned.
Weak strike.

This one I don't really like too much,,, just looks 'off' to me.

 

There is damage on the back left wheat stalk, on the top left. or is that lamination ?
Will also say that the coin was recolored after being cleaned.
Weak strike.

This one I don't really like too much,,, just looks 'off' to me.

 

Cleaned, environmental damage? hahaha!

 

Nice pickup RLM,, I see you eyeball the lower tier tpg's also looking for steals... good job here. It wouldn't surprise me to see this one make 63,, I've seen worse strikes in 63 holders.

 

I've been looking for a 1920-S for a several months now, but just haven't found the one that strikes my fancy yet.
I finally see a pretty nice 1920-S on the Bay. A few fine scratches on the surface, but it's pretty nice....Not near as nice as Lance's though. The 1920-S cents are going much higher that I thought they would when I started looking months ago.
Chuck

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1920-S-GEM-...dividual&hash=item35b5b620da&autorefresh=true

 

If only those coins really looked like his picture! However, somehow I would be very leery. Anyone who sells a "1926 S BU RED Lincoln Cent" (http://www.ebay.com/itm/1926-S-BU-R...39?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item35b565fb3f) for $108 and sells all his coins as Private Listings. Then again, if you want to take a chance, you might just get a super bargain. At least he offers money back.

 

Thanks. I have to agree 100%. I've never bought from that seller before, so I really don't know anything about them. The black background is usually a red-flag. Probably has red flood-lamps on it. I'm leery of anything that looks too good to be true. Some of the sellers have made a real art out of photographing coins. They can perform wonders in a photo nowadays, and you don't find out until you actually have it in-hand. I guess they figure that most will not mess with returning it. I've seen a few sellers that have sold thousands of Lincolns, and every single one of them have the exact same color, tint, hue, or whatever....almost look like the same coin. They are not always red either. There's one seller that comes to mind that, and every Lincoln they ever sold had that same rich-chocolate color and never a scratch.

The 1926 S has really skyrocketed in the last few years. It's even higher than the 1924 D now. There must be more and more collectors starting to collect or hoard the low-mintage Lincolns.

 

There have been some really nice 1920 S cents posted in here. I spotted a pretty nice one on the bay, the same seller as the 1926 S in my last post here. It's over $300 with 3 days left. Do you reckon that thing is worth $300?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230681878746&category=39456&_trksid=p5197.c0.m619

I don't like bidding on coins that are listed as a "Private seller". You can't look at any of the seller's previous sales, or even see what they have sold in the past. I also like to look at the bids and see how many different people are actually bidding on it. It may be okay, I just don't like it myself.
I didn't realize that a red MS-65 prices at 30 grand. The real nice ones must have been very scarce in 1920.

 

Huh? That is the same identical coin you posted lat time. And, yes, 65 MM'ed coins from the 20's can go for a bunch.

 

You are right, sorry. I just glanced down and saw that url for the 1926 S.

 

I will repeat the second half of what I said before. Then again, if you want to take a chance, you might just get a super bargain. At least he offers money back.

 

My eyes are getting bad. It looks like a bit of doubling at the top of TRUST to me, but I'm sure you would have noticed if it were actually there.

 

You are correct, but I have not noticed that before. Most of the motto has some doubling if you see it at the right angle. It has got to be MD.

 

You peaked my interest. Here are a couple pictures of that coin - much better than the earlier ones. That has got to be die deterioration doubling. I mean that die was in such great shape.

 

Yep, simple DDD.

 

Are there certain characteristics that are common on the 1920 S Lincolns, and what are they?
Well, you know, other than Abe being on each one, lol.

Maybe it's just me, cause I've been looking for a 1920 S for so long, but I've noticed this:

The PLU in PLURIBUS is lightly struck, and the RIBUS usually has a much better strike on the 1920 S cents.
I think it was noted towards the beginning of this thread, but the far left side of the wheat is commonly shallow.
The LIBERTY letters are better struck from left to right, and sometimes appear to get bigger.
Common for the AME in AMERICA to be lightly struck towards the bottom, and the RICA better struck.
I've also noticed that many on the upper left side of the O in ONE are struck lighter.

I don't know....maybe it's just me.

 

So far as I know there is nothing specific to the 20-S except that it is commonly a weak strike. The weak O's are common to just about any Lincoln, but maybe more common during the 20's. The thick part of Abe's bust is directly opposite. That would also account for a lot of the RIBUS also. And guess what is opposite the AMER - Abe's head. Finding a well struck Lincoln 20 - 28 is rough. Thereafter, they tend to be better struck but by then the dies had lost a lot of their detail.