Best Of

I do not see any double strike. I believe that the two curved indentations are what is called an "Incomplete Clip." When they are making coins or tokens, the general way to make the planchets they are struck on is to pass a rolled out strip of coinage metal under a planchet cutter. Think of a steel cookie cutter. Punch a hole, advance the strip, punch another hole, etc.

If the planchet cutter does not completely penetrate the planchet strip, and the planchet strip advances just a little bit before the operator tries again, the planchet so cut can show the curved indentations from the first, incomplete punch.

Do the indentations line up on either side of the piece? If so, that is what this is.

Yeah, I know how you feel. My Kennedy is ungradeable as well, because NO date.

Reminds you of the "Tomb of The Unknown Soldier".

@DCW will do, looking forward to seeing it in-hand. It’s a bit of a medium olive in the TV pics, hopefully it’s not too dark, but the planchet is nearly unflawed and circulation marks appear to be minimal and in line with the grade. I’ve wanted one for many years and several times in the past when a nice and (relatively) affordable piece has come up I failed to “pull the trigger”, and I wasn’t going to let that happen yet again.
I’ve never had a focus on large cents, but the mystique and history of the chain cent have always called out to me - it’s simply a classic iconic piece of our national heritage IMO.

Since I can take pics again, I dug mine out.

This year is the 70th Anniversary of the iconic Lincoln Cent Double Die Obverse released in 1955.

The 1955 double die Lincoln cent was created due to a manufacturing error at the Philadelphia Mint. During the die-making process, a working die for Lincoln cents received two impressions from a master hub, with the second impression slightly misaligned. This misalignment resulted in a doubling effect on the date, inscriptions, and lettering on the obverse side of the coin. Specifically:

The die-making process typically requires multiple impressions from a working hub to create a high-quality die.
In this case, the coin hub and die were not correctly aligned (slightly rotated) for the final impression.
This misalignment caused the lettering, date, and inscriptions to appear doubled on the die.

The error went unnoticed, and the faulty die was put into service during a midnight to 8 AM shift. It is estimated that approximately 40,000 of these error coins were struck before the mistake was discovered. About 20,000-24,000 of these coins were already mixed with properly produced cents and subsequently released into circulation.
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The mint could make a one ounce gold Lincoln Cent coin dated 2025 as a 70th anniversary of this major error coin, that has the front doubled like the original. Will they do it? People can only dream unfortunately.

@coiner said:
PIC - First Strike - Baltimore PR70DCAM (POP 1)

Love the gold label! That is a fine looking coin. Congratulations!😎