A 1972 Lincoln, need some expert opinions please.

wam98

I don't want to get my hopes up before being sure. There seems to be some doubling in the 7 & 2 of the date. There are no doubling anywhere else. I don't have a scope to take a closer photo, only a Nikon. The 2 has doubling on the inside that I don't think you can see. I have looked at the different varieties of the 72 DD on dealers web sites and some I couldn't even see the doubling but they were certified as 72 DD. Thanks in advance for your help.

coppercoins

The only 1972P doubled die obverse that only shows doubling on the date is die #9. All the rest show doubling elsewhere as well. It will take a couple of back and forths to figure out what this one is, because the photos simply don't do the trick in this case.

First thing, check this thread and look at the photos of a 1972 cent provided there. If your coin has the same doubling he pointed out on "IN" of the motto, you have master die doubling, possibly mixed with machine doubling, no value.

If the word "IN" doesn't have the same doubling, you could possibly have die #9. Respond back here as to wheter the "IN" on your coin looks like the one in the thread noted, then we will move to the next step.

coppercoins

I'll go ahead with step 2, because I have photos that I can share to help out.

This is 1972P-1DO-009, also known as CONECA DDO-009. It has doubling inside the 9 of the date as well as an extra tail to the 9 of the date. If you have this particular doubled die, you have one that is rather scarce, but is not recognized by PCGS. I believe ANACS and ICG are the only services that will slab this variety with the die number.

The only problem here is that your coin appears to be EF45-ish, which precludes it from being valuable enough to slab, even if you do have die #9. This is because die #9 in EF is a $2-$4 coin at best, and slabbing fees would eat that up quickly. Now...if you are a collector and want to have the coin attributed and slabbed as such, then by all means do it. But if you are trying to profit from a find and don't wnat to keep the coin, slabbing it would be a bad idea - way too many of these still exist in higher grades.

wam98

Coppercoins, thanks for the help. To answer your first question about there being doubling in the "IN", there isn't any that I can see. I am also comparing it to another 72. This coin is in such rough shape though who knows.

The only doubling is in the 7 & 2 viewed with a 5x, don't have anything stronger. After photographing I noticed the 1 in the date had a resemblence of doubling at the top, but nothing else.

ANACS would be the only grading service to send this one to, to get authenticated, because of the damage to the rim. IMO.

If it is in fact one of the die varities of the 72 DD, it will reside in my raw Lincoln Cent collection as one of the varieties. A one cent investment sounds good to me.

coppercoins

Look just above the horizontal bar at the bottom of the 2. If it has that extra line, it's die #9. If not, it's either a later die state example of the master die doubling (which does show doubling inside the 2 of the date) or it's machine doubling, which is very common for 1972 cents.

wam98

No, there were no doubling on the top bar of the 2. I comparred it to the one you sent the link to and mine is different. Mine looks like a second 2 laying on top of another 2, with the top 2 laying about 10 O'clock on top of the other 2. Leaving the doubling to be seen below the bar of the 2 and on the outside ) curve of the 2. The 7 is the same way. The 9 did have the faintest split in the tail as shown in your photo. Got to get a scope to look at this one.

coppercoins

Without being able to closely examine the coin, it sounds most likely that you have the master die doubling, which does show some evidence of hub doubling in the date, but unfortunately since this was done on the master die, it is on half or more of all 1972 minted cents from all mints, including the proofs. Very common, and has no extra value.