I have been looking through a butch of Lincoln cents and keep finding a lot of the wide A/M spacing in AMERICA on various dates. I thought this was only predominately on the 1998-1999 & 2000 dates. Adversely there is the 1998-S & 1999-S that is designated as having a close A/M. This varity I thought was caused from the 1998-1999 & 2000 being struck on a proof die, And I assume that the 1998-S & the 1999-S proof coins were struck on a regular business dies. So what is the deal on the 1992 & 1992-D cents with close A/M, isn't this normal for all business cents ?
1992 is a transistional variety that can be very elusive. Of the 3 commonly known Wide AM coins, 1999 appears to be the most difficult to find. Given die life and production nembers per die, it's not impossible to think that there might be millions of these just waiting to be found. But, attrition does take a heavy toll on these Zincolns. Whats the big deal? I guess the popularity of the Lincoln Cent combined with folks becoming "aware" of identifiable differences.
Until 1992 all cents, both proof and business strike had Wide AM's (WAM) In 1993 they made a change in the hubs and all cents that year were going to have Close AM's (CAM). In late 1992 they were making dies for both 1992 and 1993. At least one 1993 CAM dies was accidentally used to strike cents in Philadelphia and one in Denver. These are the rare 1992 CAM. In 1994 it was decided that from then on the business strike would use the CAM design and the proof coins would use the WAM design. This meant that both types of dies were now being made at the same time in Philadelphia. (Until 1997 Philadelphia made all of the dies for all of the mints. After 1997 Denver made their own.) In 1998 and 1999 at least one CAM business strike die was accidentally mixed in with the WAM proof dies, sent out for polishing and used in San Francisco to make proof cents. In 1998, 1999, and 2000 at least one proof design WAM die got mixed in with the business strike CAM dies and used to make WAM cents. Since both die types were being made at the same time from 1994 to 2008 it is POSSIBLE that mixups could have occured in other years as well. It is also POSSIBLE that 1994-D to 1996-D WAM cents could have occured as well. So far the only one that has been reported has been a 1996 WAM but it has not been independently verified.
