1943-S Lincoln Cent - What's going on with mintmark?
nencoin
Posts: 1,240 ✭✭✭✭
What's happening here? The mintmarks almost look too dissimilar to be strike doubling. The coin has been plated, btw.
The full coin:
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Comments
It looks like a little S sitting on top of the bigger S, but I don't think that is possible. Do you have the coin in hand?
That's exactly what it looks like to me, also. I no longer have the coin. Someone brought it by today and left with it after we shot some pictures. I said I'd email him if we could figure out exactly what we're seeing.
Considering that I also see ghosting on the date, I would assume strike doubling or die wear.
Die erosion around the mintmark and E PLURIBUS on the reverse.
I think the plating is what makes the MM look doubled.
for PCGS. A 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022
I just sold an off center 1943 reprocessed cent (but not plated) with a die chip in the date.
So, IMO it has a die chip and is plated so it looks funky.
Plated/Reprocessed - I meant the same.
I don't see the mintmark area as a die chip ??
for PCGS. A 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022
I need to be educated here. I always believed that a "reprocessed" steel cent was replated with zinc......
Some are stripped to steel and left that way. Some are stripped to steel and then plated with zinc in a two-step process.
My first impression of the OP coin is that it was stripped of zinc and some rust formed around the MM an on the reverse. Then replated/reprocessed.
I used to work in a major plating shop back in the mid 70s. We plated all the typical metals, but the biggest volume was zinc on steel stampings. Being curious one day, I decided to reprocess a few of my old steelies to see how they would look. Unfortunately, this was before digital camera soI didn't take any photos.
What I can say is that the process is quite simple
To strip the zinc off the steel, I used a 20% bath of hydrochloric acid in water. Took about 30 seconds to strip the zinc. It bubbles vigorously so you know when the bubbles stop, you are done.
To be safe, I neutralized the acid by dipping in our typical aqueous cleaner. Major ingredient is NaOH (lye) with some wetters.
Now that it is clean, rinsed in water, then dipped in 10% solution of hydrochloric acid to activate the surface and assist in adhesion of the plated layer.
Plated in a zinc bath in a small rotating barrel along with some zinc shot to even out the load. This puts an even coating of zinc on the surface. Thickness was probably 0,0002" to 0,0005" but I did not measure with the gauge.
After plating, rinse in water
Then immersed in a clear chromate solution to provide additional corrosion resistance and to keep it shiny longer. The hexavalent chrome solutions are no longer used as they are toxic.
Rinsed
Dried with compressed air.
They looked pretty good - nice and shiny. But they did not look original so they sat in my desk drawer for years. Ultimately I lost them.
But it was fun to do at the time.
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