question about 1960 linc

silverandvinyl

I just opened a roll that i've had for about 15 years.They are very shinny.About 50% of them have something in common. The ear lobes look worned and the memorial starting at the column to the right of Linc. and going all the way down in a V shape to the end of the stairs looks worned.Are these the areas where the Lincs. would start wearing first."I'm just guessing they are worn" What else would cause it?What's confusing is they all have that V shape on the reverse.

coppercoins

I'd have to see one of the coins to tell you exactly what's going on with them, but if they came out of a roll of BU coins and all are uncirculated, you either have coins struck with grease filled dies or you have weak strikes. The typical first point of wear on the memorial reverse Lincoln is the cheekbone and jawbone on the obverse and the tops of the columns and the planters (on either side of the stairs) on the reverse.

My guess is that they are not worn if they are still red and came from an original roll. If they are circulated and at least partially brown, then you could be talking about worn coins.

Cam40

It sounds like weak or grease-filled die coins.Its not wear if the coins look mint fresh and have booming luster.Check for small and large date varieties.The small dates are the sought-after ones I think.It was once hyped to a fairly inflated rate.They still command a premium in high grade though too.

coppercoins

<< <i>It was once hyped to a fairly inflated rate.They still command a premium in high grade though too. >>



addendum:

The P mint small date 1960 cents are the ones that command a premium, the D mint small dates are common as blades of grass on a football field. If the roll is D mint, a cursory knowledge that the coins are large or small date would be nice, but there's no difference in value - around $1 a roll maximum, or about 20 cents per BU coin, mostly because of the supplies and time to holder them.

As for the hype, that was actually started back in 1960 shortly after their release. People were offering up to $500 a bag for small date cents before New Year's 1961. It is estimated that the ratio of large date to small date is about 15 to 1, but at that time it had been believed that the striking life of the small dates were but two days and the ratio would end up being hundreds to one. That didn't happen. The BIG hype about them died off a couple of years later, but a premium has always been warranted because they are quite difficult to find.

1960P large date rolls sell for $1 or less while their small date counterparts sell for over $80 a roll, if you can find them. Single coins typically sell for between $4 and $6 in GEM BU, if the dealer bothers to look at them and mark them properly. Over the past ten years I have built a near-roll of 42 coins purchasing them as common large date cents at shows for less than a quarter a coin.

Interestingly enough, the ratio for the proofs is very similar to that of the business strike coins, but the vast difference in price isn't there, and the gap is getting narrower with time. In the past ten years the value of a mid to high grade "raw" 1960 small date proof cent has fallen from over $20 to less than $15. According to the gap in value between the two different business strike cents, the same gap in the proofs would price the small date at $40-$60...just not the case. I bought my proof a couple of years ago at a show for $6.50 and if holdered it would grade PR68.