Benawoo Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenstang Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Please do not use screen shots, they are too pixilated to see detail clearly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandon Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 The pictures are too blurry to tell for sure, but it appears just to be a damaged mintmark. Please transmit images directly from your computer instead of camera shots of the images on the screen. Additionally, please post cropped images of each full side of the coin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henri Charriere Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Without a scintilla of doubt or smidgen of evidence to support my audacious claim, I am going to suggest the entire area surrounding the mintmark(s) ought to be regarded as one would a crime scene. Each 'mark is of a different size and, no offense intended, but the "D" looks morbidly obese. In addition, one cannot help but notice the unkempt workplace, i.e., the immediate work area, a darker iridescent blue which envelops the letter D circumferentially and completely. I regret to say I am obliged to question the skills of the amateur-artist involved and am constrained to withhold the usual honorarium solely for that reason. 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benawoo Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 I appreciate all your feedback and respect your knowledge of coins. 1 of these days, I'm going to find that retirement coin!! Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Meenderink Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 The coin you have posted is a normal 1976 Eisenhower Bi Centennial dollar. The coin is also heavily circulated and would not grade above VF. The mint mark has taken a hit which created its strange appearance. NGC does not recognize any D over S re punched mintmark variety on these coins. There has never been a certified D/S variety re punch mintmark on these coins and/or it is not a listed or attributed variety with CONECA or Variety Vista. The coin is worth 1$. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sandon Posted February 13 Popular Post Share Posted February 13 While sharper close-ups would help, it still appears just to be a normal "D" mintmark with a scrape. The depressed area around the mintmark resulted from metal being displaced by the mintmark being punched into the die, which was done by hand before the early 1990s. This displaced metal is raised on the die and appears as a depression on the coins struck by that die. It is extremely unlikely that a "D over S" overmintmark variety, if one existed, would not have been discovered by now. On 2/12/2024 at 7:25 PM, Benawoo said: 1 of these days, I'm going to find that retirement coin!! If you mean this seriously, please understand that it would be an extraordinary occurrence to find any mint error, die variety, or other coin of any great value in circulation or among accumulations of common coins. I haven't found anything worth more than a few dollars in this manner in nearly 53 years as a collector and only know one person who has, that coin being a cent overstruck by nickel dies that is worth perhaps a few hundred dollars. You would do better by learning as much as you can about coins from books, reliable online resources, and by studying the coins themselves and speaking with knowledgeable collectors and dealers. You can then make wise purchases of pieces that have a good chance of appreciating over time. Do you have, at least, a current or recent edition of the "Redbook", a current price guide, and a grading guide? Benawoo, powermad5000 and Henri Charriere 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powermad5000 Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Hello and welcome! I used my phone to take a pic of one of your regular pics, and with a little zooming, I think the mag is making the whole thing look different/worse/questionable. What I see in the pic I am able to adjust better and work with, reminds me of some of these I've seen and has been better described by @Sandon, but what I used to call in my own words as a "heavy mintmark". Basically, the mintmark looks like it is sitting "deep" in the metal. I now know better how this comes to be and was properly described by Sandon. I don't see any evidence of an RPM and I also could not locate one for this issue on any of the sources used to verify if any have been discovered. As a tip, while I am on this thread, I warn to use caution with the mag. While it has it's purpose for verifying something you have maybe found using 7X or 10X, use of the mag beyond that will send you down a rabbit hole of seeing things that are not really there, or are not really a feature of a coin. Mag can make a hit look like the Grand Canyon, or a raised spot like a mountain. We know neither of those to be true on coins. My advice is to ditch the mag and keep your inspections down to a reasonable 7-10X. Benawoo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWB Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 (edited) Here are photos of the OP's 1976-D, and two Unc examples. All have the D within a depression (on the coin). This is actually a small raised area in the die where the tiny mintmark pushed up metal and the die field was not smoothed afterward. The large "S" is an optical illusion. Edited February 13 by RWB powermad5000 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VKurtB Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 On 2/12/2024 at 6:25 PM, Benawoo said: I appreciate all your feedback and respect your knowledge of coins. 1 of these days, I'm going to find that retirement coin!! Lol Actually, no, no you’re not going to find a retirement coin. Henri Charriere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benawoo Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 @VKurtB WOW! That reply makes me more driven to keep searching all my coins. Henri Charriere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J P M Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 On 2/15/2024 at 12:11 AM, Benawoo said: @VKurtB WOW! That reply makes me more driven to keep searching all my coins. LoL If looking for posable mint defects in coins is what you like to do then go for it. I roll hunt all the time and I do find many irregularities in coins. However, I do not find true error coins very often, once in a blue moon like almost never. But I still roll hunt all the time searching for hard-to-find coins to fill my coin folders. I enjoy it and if I do find a coin, I truly think is worthy I will post it in a thread to see what others think. I say collect what you like. The point is Most collectors do not hunt only a small percentage. Kurt knows coins inside and out and has been collecting and representing numismatics for his lifetime. He as most members here will tell you how things are you may not like all of it but we all are true to the hobby. Henri Charriere and powermad5000 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VKurtB Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 (edited) On 2/14/2024 at 11:11 PM, Benawoo said: @VKurtB WOW! That reply makes me more driven to keep searching all my coins. I’ve been searching ALL my coins for 61 years and I have never ever even ONCE found a legitimate error coin. Not one ever. Yes, I have found the same garbage that ends up all over this site. The key is the phrase “legitimate error coin”. They are NOT just sitting out there for any schlemiel to find. Error coins are PURCHASED, seldom FOUND. So where do they come from? Fair question. Overwhelmingly they are pulled from monstrous “ballistic bags” by employees of the firms that the Federal Reserve Banks hire to roll coins, such as N.F. String & Sons of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania or any of the other similar firms. Edited February 16 by VKurtB Sandon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powermad5000 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 (edited) I will state @Benawoo, that I have found three mint errors in change. NONE of them command any real premium. Just a very slight premium over face value. They are all strike throughs which are mainly "common" in the error world and none of them are colossal errors. My one Roosevelt dime has both sides struck through pretty good, but still, it is not a colossal error. Also, if I may, I invite you to look over the wares on the website Sullivan Numismatics. They specialize only in error coins. They have colossal errors. And none of those would you be able to retire on either. Even the sacred 1982 D Small Date Bronze Transitional Lincoln Cent sold for a high price, but still not a price you would be able to retire on. I am not trying to burst your bubble, it is just the way it is. This hobby is participated mostly out of a love of it. A love of coins. Very few have the means to assemble a collection that one could retire on. We mostly don't spend all this time on this hobby looking for financial gain. If anything, it is a financial drain on most of us. But, we don't care because we love our coins and we love organizing and cataloging and reading about and learning more about and photographing and looking at and looking for them, and some of us even display them. So, I think you will find that you like the searching for coins you are looking for and in the meantime dreaming about a great find, and that is excellent. Keep looking! We on here are all looking for something. I think it is the search that makes it interesting as well as the process of learning more. Edited February 16 by powermad5000 Sandon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
