1941-D with a number 16 in Lincoln's head

[kevsky1-migration]

I've had this coin in my care for more than 20 years now but it's just been sitting in a penny book. I'm trying to find out if there's something to it. It's a Lincoln 1941-D and the number 16 is indented in the middle of Mr. Lincoln's head. It's not scratched in, It's a perfect 16. I have a picture but not sure how to upload it to this post. I'm wondering if it would be a waist of time to get it graded by NGC.

Another question that I have is I sent a penny to be graded by NGC and it came back saying improperly cleaned. I've never cleaned any coin that I have. I read an earlier post that they look at the edges and if it's scratched they say "improperly cleaned". Could the scratches be from having it in a penny collectors book? Thanks for your time.

 

Kevin

[Max Spiegel]

Kevin,

 

Thank you for your question. The first coin has almost certainly been countermarked with a 16 punch. This is fairly common. NGC would give that coin a Details grade and we would probably describe it as "Damaged."

 

To answer your second question, even though you may have never cleaned a coin it is very possible that it was cleaned by its previous owner. I'm not sure what you mean by looking at the edges, but there are a number of methods for determining that a coin was improperly cleaned. Hairlines (or tiny scratches, as you mention) can be an indication that the coin has been wiped or polished. It is hard to say whether the album that you have could have caused it, but I would say that it is not very likely.