1955 die chips on head

[Shleppodella1]

Is the raw Lincoln in the same "die chips on head" category as the slabbed one it has the crack in the head but die chips are in LIBERTY & 5 in date (I didn't add pics keeping # down).
I know that I just posted another one like this but I found a slabbed one that is very close to the one I have OR am I simply confusing myself because I have an entire roll like this one with the head like that.

[MintErrors]

In my opinion, people have to understand the minting process. People that understand the minting process can debunk a lot of the non errors out there, or should be able to immediately recognize a valuable one that has been examined/listed incorrectly.

The working dies are subjected to tons of pressure. On average each working die can strike up to 1 million Lincoln cents. Die chip, simply put are chips of the working die that come from the die and areas of the die with missing material. The area where there are die chips ON THE COIN are typically raised. On the WORKING DIE, the die chips make a small hole or divot on the area, making the crevice, so on the coin, its slightly more raised.

The area above Lincoln's eye brown and below the hair line... That line appears to be a die crack. a potentially superficial crack on the working die that if it continues to strike coins much longer, it may cause the die to have a catastrophic failure. It it appears shallow at first like this one, and over time, may get worse.

Now, it depends on when the working die, in this case an obverse die started failing / having issues with die chips showing. The working die could have struck an additional 10,000 to hundreds of thousands of coins before they are removed from service due to issues. If the mint considered them within tolerance, and the working die only had 10% of its strike potential left, why bother to remove it early.

have a look at this one....
https://minterrors.org/wp-content/up...racks-head.jpg

IF it was possible, you probably can find markers or pick up points on the die chips from the same roll. Some may have a die chips in a unique design or location, there may be a die scratch noticeable in a location and other things that can identify that all those coins came from the same working die.

Die cracks/die chips are pretty common in late stage working dies. I remember digging through rolls (more than bags) and finding handfuls of them in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. At that point, it was not worth the effort to collect these since they were highly available, so I shoved them all in safes at storage. I have no idea how many I have but I image there are probably a thousand or more. I typically grab a few rolls from the 19060's or 70's and put a few rolls in mylars and toss them in the dollar bin at shows.


For this type of "error" i cannot see the return on investment, but people slab things for different reasons. Its a decision a person has to make and its their time, money and associated risk.

[Shleppodella1]

OK thank you. I was just wowed that an entire roll has the same spider webbing crack across the head and a minor die chip in the B and the 5. I will as you advised and check for markers. Like you said the cracks gets progressively worse on some coins. If that was a RPM would all of the cracks/chips add anything to it error or value wise?

[MintErrors]

It depends if the collector is just a error collector, or just an varieties collector.

In my opinion, the variety collector would benefit from it more, since some of that could be used as markers/pups. The error collector may consider the added RPM a novelty.

[MintErrors]

It's rather unusual to have an entire roll with coins from the same working die or minting machine. They used to run somewhere around 9 to 15 machines at once back in the day, to make one denomination. They have increased the number of machines in this day and age.i think the number is upwards of 60. How many of those they use on a daily average, I do not know.

All those coins, struck at Jack hammer speeds get sent down chutes, intermingle and go towards bagging. They eventually left the mint and either got rolled at a Federal Reserve or, at a third party rolling facility.

But, it's like anything else. Like a mated pair error coins. They rarely end up in the same bag, but it does happen.

[Shleppodella1]

Here's another one from that exact roll. It SEEMS to have the same cracks in the head on some of these 55D's would that be a marker to find out what die it came from or a coin-cidence (pun). But I also noticed that it has some of the same markers as the DDO#1 like in LIBERTY. And there's no die chip in 'T' in CENT but there does SEEM to be doubling or is that mechanical? The lips and ear are lacking is that from grease build up? The date does look promising as well with the 1 & 9. I'm new to numistics (5+ yrs.) and I've gone thru at least a close to a couple hundred rolls and have never seen this many of the same general markers, have you? Also to wasn't it mentioned that back then they also went into a large white bag after being minted and then sent to a federal bank to be rolled so would it be possible for some of the same pennies from the same working die to be put into the same roll from that bag?

[MintErrors]

In my opinion, LIBERTY suffers from worthless doubling. The letters are not thicker. There is no split serifs or what they call notching. What I am seeing on the coin presented, is nicks off the corners if the letters. When a working die loses some of its integrity, things happen. If a working die is starting to break, I would thing a lot of what is seen from that die would be mechanical damage.

The lacking area is due to wear and die stage. If the markers for that stage aren't there it's more than likely the coin is not that variety.

Yes bags were a way to transport cents. Each bag had 5000 cents. I have searched thousands of rolls. Typically I have seen about 6 different types of coins within the roll. Sometimes more. if I was lucky, I would get one roll of varieties for every three searched.

With bags of BU coins, the spread of varieties matter with the year and mintmark. Some years had a lot of varieties, so rewards were better (1959D, 1960D, 1961D). Bags I concentrated on were from 1948 to 1972. I did not buy all years. As for rolls, I would buy from reliable sources, and a smattering from people who were not even interested in coins, other than selling the rolls.