1983 LWC Missing Letters

[pennypal]

Hellos to everyone.

I have a strange looking 1983 lincoln wheat cent, unc. The mint forgot to put Mr. Lincoln in between the columns and the designer's initials located on the right side of the steps on the reverse. This is a firey red coin. Is this important or just average? Attached are a few pictures.

Thanks for any help.

Patricia

[wavysteps]

Hi Patricia,
It appears that you have a well worn reverse die that may have been caused by an over used working hub. We must remember that even if the working die is EDS (early die state), if it was made with a well worn working hub, the transfer of the design elements will be mushy and weak. Since the obverse of your coin appears to be well struck, this would rule out a weak strike. Or, you could have a LDS-VLDS (late die state; very late die state)reverse with a MDS (mid die state)obverse. That will also give you the appearance of a mushy reverse (weak strike) and a well struck obverse.

There is one other possibility and that is the reverse was struck through a layer of grease, however, my inclination is a worn die, either the working die or the working hub.

BJ Neff

[diamond]

I have to disagree, BJ. Absence of Lincoln's statue and the designer's initials is usually due to intentional die abrasion ("die polishing"). This tends to remove low-relief design elements, which correspond to areas that are shallowly recessed into the die face. It's not a particularly rare event.

[pennypal]

1983 LWC

Thanks for all your help. I shall put it away for another 5 years. Oh yes, I also have a 1955 D LWC that has two noses, two eyes, two eyebrows, two lips that you can see very clearly without a magnifying glass, the backside is slightly off center. This is a brown coin, not at all like the 83.

Thanks.

Patricia

[wavysteps]

Mike - You are right, die abrasion does remove those elements, however, especially on the early 1980's Lincoln cents, I have seen weak design elements from over used dies that were not abraded. On this example, I did not see signs of abrasion, although they may be there, so I based my analysis on that.

BJ

[diamond]

I agree that fine details can lose their clarity in late die states. But I've not encountered any examples in which die wear obliterates all trace of them.

[wavysteps]

Mike - I never did say that a design element would be missing from a worn die; only weak and mushy. Looking at this die, there seems to be some remnants of the designer's initials left. There may be also some contributing factors that have left the T and N of CENT thinner than the rest of the letters in ONE CENT. There are also faint indications of the Lincoln statue on the reverse. I'm not to sure that these design elements are missing, just weak and hard to see on this coin; that is what I based my opinion on.

Die abrasion is the key elemenet for design elements disappearing; two of the most obvious were the three and three and half legged buffalo nickels. And it may be the cause for these design elements on this coin to be missing, weak or mushy. Since the photo is blurred, I maybe missing the die abrasion lines and they could be there. If so, that would be the cause.

BJ