New member here, with an interesting 1982

[Justinward608]

Hey everyone new to the group. I'm Justin, started coin roll searching back in November of 2021. Ive got a USB microscope, point scale and magnifying glass I like to use on the hunt and I'm happy to be here and learn more about varieties and errors.
Any way I've got a 1982 D Lincoln cent that caught my eye. I understand that there are many varieties for the 1982 but can't find much info on the one I found. It's a 1982 D with a large date copper but the only thing that appears large is the font of the date The rest of the obverse lettering is thin and more spaced. From my understanding the us mint changed the obverse lettering to strike zinc planchets and made them thinner on liberty and in god we trust as well. Is this possibly another variety? A large date Denver copper, with the new style obverse. It's the coin on the right in question. Ive posted on fb and have searched online but haven't found much on it

[Justinward608]

[mustbebob]

The actual design is what differentiates a small date from a large date. Yours is a large date by virtue of that design. As far as thickness goes, a lot of it has to do with how early in the striking process the coin was struck. Newer dies tend to have sharper devices, whereas later die state examples have mushier devices and seem thicker. Of course with circulated coinage, regular circulation tends to flatten out devices as well. There are seven different types of 1982 cents with them being struck on both copper or zinc planchets. The 1982-D small date copper cent is the rarest.

Here is a link to a google search on the 1982 cent. You can find great info here including photos of the differences between large and small dates.

https://www.google.com/search?q=type...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[Justinward608]

Thanks for the reply. It makes sense it was likely struck on a newer die causing the devices to be thinner and more crisp. I read a few articles that compared "small dates" to "large dates" and it stated the new design small date was thinner than the old large date design and one way could you tell the designs apart was by thickness of the lettering and also the 8 and 2 in the date. I thought perhaps this cent was a new small date design with the old large date, date. I read they closed the mint and made an effort to remove the small date copper Denver struck cents and then thought perhaps they struck a new large date over the small date in an effort to hide there mistake. I'll check out the link too. Thanks again

[Justinward608]

[Justinward608]

Is there an attribution for the thin lettering? Varietyvista lists Ovb-031 as (thin lettering and revised portrait) for 74-82 and 74-82 D cents but only shows a thin date 1974. Just curious

[mustbebob]

They are called large and small dates. There are literally THOUSANDS of photos on the internet showing each kind and can be easily identified. I don't know what you are trying to get at with the hand drawn numbers, but I already gave you examples of what causes thin and thicker letters besides the fact they look different. Your coin is a large date. The shape of the '2' tells us that. The variety Vista Obv-031 74-82 means that ALL cents minted between 1974 and 1982 will have this type of obverse. There was a large date 1974 (OBV-030) and a small date 1982 (OBV-032) which have different designations to help differentiate the types. If you look at the photo of the OBV-032, you can see how this small date 1982 is different from what you have. Don't go by that is thicker or thinner, but go by the difference in the designs. A lot of things can affect the thickness of the letters, especially on circulated coinage. I hope this helps as I don't know what else I can say to help.

http://varietyvista.com/01b%20LC%20D...0Varieties.htm