A few questions for Lincoln cent specialists...

mr1931S

i've recently gotten new interest in early Lincolns and have these questions for specialists (i know there's some on this board)...

1.Except for the date and mintmark positions and spacings,which i can see vary from year-to-year,
does the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST" vary in position above Lincoln's bust? Does the spacing between the letters in the motto vary from one year to another?

2.Were all master and working dies produced at the Philadelphia mint to leave the job of making the date and mintmark to the branch mints for their production of Lincoln cents?

3.Among the earliest of 'D' and 'S' Lincolns,is the same style of 'D' and 'S' used consistently from one year to another or are there some known differences in style used?

Thanks ahead of time for any answers to these questions...

merz2

mr1874
The answer to #1 is yes.
2) Yes
3) Yes : There was a small and large "S" in 1928 and 1941.

kranky

Just to elaborate a bit on merz's post...

There were obverse hub changes in 1916, 1969, 1974 (twice), 1982 (twice), 1984 and 1992. Reverse hub changes occurred in 1959, 1973, 1974, and 1986. Some of these changes are quite trivial. This could explain differences you observe in IGWT.

The Denver mintmark changed in 1917, 1933, 1980, 1985 and 1990. Different San Francisco mintmarks were used 1909-17, 1917-41 (there was a large S used on some 1928-S cents), 1941-42 and 1946-79, 1943-44, 1944-45, 1979-81, another one used only in 1981, 1982-84, 1985-89, and 1990-on.

Regarding your question #2 which I'm not sure I understand... I think all dies were prepared complete at Philadelphia, including date and mintmark, before being shipped to the branch mints for production use.

[Information from David Lange's The Complete Guide to Lincoln Cents]

mr1931S

mintmarks and dates added to dies at Philadelphia mint then...i should probably go ahead and get the Lange book...probably would answer alot of my questions...i have the Lange Mercury dime book and it's pretty good...

a general question,
are positional and spacing differences in the date considered hub varieties by Lincoln specialists?
so far,i've found three different numeral positions and spacings on deemed-to-be-genuine 1914-D...there may be more....

Lange,in the Mercury dime book,shows the different known positions and styles of 'D' mintmark on 1916 dimes to help make for a genuine '16-D...

does he do the same for 1914-D Lincolns?...obviously,position of a mintmark is always relative to some other feature on the coin...

richbeat

I did a really quick check of Lange's Lincoln cent book, and didn't see any photos comparing mint mark placement for the 1914 D cent. He does mention that at least six obverse dies were used and shows a photo of one of the dies with the comment "the mint mark of this die sits within a slight depression caused by metal displacement during the punching process." He also mentions that "the position of a particular coin's mint mark is not reliable in determining its genuineness." That might be why there are no photo comparisons.

mr1931S

that is interesting richbeat...thanks for answering...

i've been shopping for a raw '14-D...all i've seen (from some of the excellent ebay images) generally have the 'D' mintmark "left and low" but i suspect there are very small differences in position and tilt,relative to the date, even among all the "left and lows" i've seen...there may,in fact,be a fair number of positions and tilts of genuine 'D' mintmark on 1914 Lincolns...but the number is not infinite...

as far as i know,determining correct position and tilt of mintmark is of utmost importance when inspecting what purports to be "1909-S VDB"...i don't quite understand why Lange would remark about mintmark positions not "being reliable determiners of authenticity"...unless,he means that one cannot rely soley on mintmark position and tilt to determine authenticity...i'll buy that,
especially on '09 SVDB...

i'll probably buy a '14-D that used the die that has the 'D' in a so-called slight depression...that feature goes a long way towards establishing authenticity of a raw '14-D it seems...

i don't want no fake '14-D in my set of unslabbed Lincolns...again thanks for the information...