I've got a little bit of free time on my hands and am going through my bin of US "error" coins. I've been collecting these for some time and only now am slowly starting to get the hang of what truly are errors and what are not. I'll get to the ones I actually believe to be errors later, but for now, I'm asking for a little assistance understanding the coins that may or most likely not be errors. I've got four coins to show: 1. 1955 D Wheat Cent with very fat letters. My guess is it's been through the dryer a few times? 2. 1974 D Dime missing the US in E Pluribus Unum. 3. 1930 S Wheat Cent with letters blurry. My guess was struck through grease and maybe it's just wear from a pocket 4. 1954 S Nickel that I originally thought had doubling but realized it was just die deterioration. I did notice some strange marks near the R and T on LIBERTY. If it was a cent, I would've said bubbling, but I'm not sure since it's a nickel. Do those have similar issues?
3. 1930 S Wheat Cent with letters blurry. My guess was struck through grease and maybe it's just wear from a pocket
4. 1954 S Nickel that I originally thought had doubling but realized it was just die deterioration. I did notice some strange marks near the R and T on LIBERTY. If it was a cent, I would've said bubbling, but I'm not sure since it's a nickel. Do those have similar issues?
The 54 Nickel dies were worked and reworked at both branch mints there are a lot of varieties. I think your nickel is a result of over used dies - die fatigue basically. You may want to look real close at the mint mark though there are some OMM's. The coin below I posted some time back it has signs of die wear as many 54's seem too.
