Possible 1955 D/S Lincoln Cent

[kkatzens]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on this forum but I have already enjoyed reading through the wealth of knowledge that is contained herein. I have enjoyed a rejuvenated interest in collecting over the past few months after my three daughters (ages 8 - 12) asked me to show them my collection. They are now excited by the hobby and it has been something we have been doing together for the past few months which has been great (reminds me of how I got into it years ago with my father). As the majority of my collecting happened during my youth (pre 1990), I have really enjoyed getting up to speed on all of the errors and terminology that has come to exist since I last collected. I believe that I have breached the threshold of being in danger of asking an uninformed question to being able to minimize the wasting of everybody's time here.

We have been looking through all of my previously accumulated coins for errors as well as doing some coin roll hunting (mostly pennies). We have identified numerous RPMs (mostly Ds) and a few mechanically doubled pennies but we came across something last week that I thought might interest this Forum if it is legitimate.

The photos provided show a 1955 D that has the appearance of a possible S to shifted slightly to the east. At first I thought it might just be "opportunistic" discoloration in the exterior of the D mintmark pairing up with what might be die deterioration on the interior of the D. However, the more I look at it, the more it looks like the upper two thirds of an S mintmark. As I don't believe there are any recognized 1955 D/S OMMs, I thought I'd submit it here to see what folks with more experience than I think this is.

Hopefully the photos are acceptable, it is the best I could do with what I have at home. I also ran one of the photos through some photoshop magic to try and enhance things a bit. If these photos aren't sufficient and there is a consensus that these are worth investigating further, I'll try and find a way to acquire some better images.

Thanks in advance!

kkatzens

[mustbebob]

There are a couple of things I need to bring up for consideration. First, it can not be an S mintmark as it is way too large to be one. I was thinking that I had seen something similar for 1955D and I had. RPM-003 for the date has pieces of a repunched mintmark in the same areas. However, after looking at the published example, It is not RPM-003. The mintmark position is incorrect as well as other diagnostics not matching up. You may want to look at this as being a regular RPM rather than an OMM if it turns out to be something. Right now, I just can tell anything else.

[Kloccwork419]

I think its just a stain playing tricks on you. Not an RPM

[MintErrors]

Good Point Klocc,

That issue could have existed prior to the coin being struck. It's very hard to tell.

Think of it this way. If that area WAS originally minted that way 67 years ago and as circulated as this coin is, that little bit of area which might look like something should have faded off a long time ago.

This area should be raised above the field, and it does not look that way. You have the coin in hand so you may be able to tell better than the photos show. Plus, think how big that "S" would be and geesh, that would be bigger than just about any mintmark denomination that was used in the US. Morgan Dollars has some big "S's" but, they weren't minted during this time.

Circulated coins go through a lot of different conditions, so it is very difficult to know what happened for sure. I get frowns when I say, trust that the researchers would have found a 1955 D over S a long time ago if it was this bold and big on a Lincoln cent. I trust my logical judgement when it comes to older coins and say that if it is not currently listed, it has a high probability of nor being a new discovery.

[kkatzens]

Thanks Bob, Klocc, and Gary for taking the time to provide your expertise. I am 90% convinced that the anomaly on the interior of the mintmark has some relief, but everything else is difficult to tell with the equipment that I have. I may try and acquire some better images in the future but I think what was stated here is dead on.

I look forward to referring back to this forum in the future and it is great to know that those of you who are way more knowledgeable than I are willing to help!

Many thanks,

kkatzens

[MintErrors]

You are welcome, we are here to help. Thanks for being open minded.