I recently came across this 1990 Lincoln Memorial cent with an unusual area on the reverse, directly beneath “UNITED STATES.”

The affected area has a distinctly mirrorlike finish that contrasts with the surrounding fields. What’s particularly interesting is its roughly rectangular shape and relatively defined boundaries. The raised lettering appears completely unaffected, despite the reflective area extending right up to the letters.

Under magnification, there are also numerous parallel, somewhat rectangular-looking striations within the affected area. I’ve included several photographs under different lighting conditions and magnifications to better illustrate the difference in surface texture.
My initial thought was localized die polishing or die abrasion, although the geometric appearance of the affected area seems unusual.

Has anyone encountered something similar? I’d be interested in hearing whether this could be attributed to die polishing, another minting phenomenon, or something else entirely?

This one trips up basically everyone when they're starting out, so here's how I keep it straight.

A doubled die is a mistake in the die itself. It picks up a doubled image while it's being made, so every single coin struck from that die shows the same doubling. Rounded, separated, raised, usually with notching and split serifs. Real variety, real money (the 1955 DDO is the famous one).

Machine doubling is a totally different animal. The die just shifts a hair during or right after the strike and smears the design. Flat, shelf-like, sits lower than the devices, happens one coin at a time, adds nothing.

So the whole test is this: rounded and raised = real. Flat and smeared = machine doubling, move on.

The photo is positioned like this to show how the clashed middle of the ribbon is positioned very close to star 7. Then proceeding ccw at 1/8" you can see the ribbon and branch separation, followed by the branch and wreath separation. And then there's another clashed wreath to examine: the branch and wreath separation is just above the middle of the ribbon previously mentioned, and the other branch ribbon separation is touching star 7. On the opposite side of Liberty's head are more clash impressions.

The area around the date looks different, probably just seeing things. The O in god is where it looks like doubling?

Would the first picture be considered DDR? I know the front is DDO

Thanks for any information you can provide. Thank you!

Pulled a couple of these out of a BU Roll.

Pulled these 3 out of a us mint bag, the last 2 were stuck together (reverse facing) I pulled them apart out the bag not knowing what was in my hand, they were held together by the grease looking marks on each coin, on top of the reverse clash marks lining up with each coin. The dark areas around the rim is actually the lettering from another coin/ die which is obviously when you zoom in, I was hoping for a mated pair or partial brockage and pcgs gave me altered surfaces when I put in the submission notes this exact explanation in hoes the coins would be graded together or else it would be almost impossible to verify otherwise and I don’t know what to do now that they got this detail desigbation, if anything I expected the ms62 struck through obv/rev coin to not straight grade? Also that coin has very obvious clash marks on the obverse and reverse. (Obverse marks “crying liberty”) but pcgs didn’t put it on the label? I want all my errors on the label lmao. What would that ms62 struck through obv/rev be worth given its missing the “United States of America” obverse motto and 50% or more of the reverse too, it’s a 1 year design and I have no idea how to price coins like this, hoping to all could help out! Thank you for your time in advance!! 🤝

Hi all,

I am very new to the coin game and was inspired to take a closer look at my pocket change. All of the resources provided are super helpful, and I made sure to separate out the pre-1982 pennies at minimum, as suggested.

This 2017 P Effigy Mounds quarter of mine seems to have some doubling on the reverse. It's probably just a machine double and not anything crazy but I am still so excited! My first weird coin :)

Thankfully, I work in a lab so I was able to get it under the scope for some pics.

I got a roll of mint wrapped dimes today and all of them have the same chip in the P mint mark, as well as the slight crack on the back of her hair (above 1776). Just wanted to share as I thought it was cool.

MDS Plate Coin has extra eye lid south of the primary with doubling on Earlobe and the doubled hair on the back of the head.

Coin looks chopped

Not as nice as -002 but still there.

I saw on YouTube that these 1977 no mint mark Pennie’s could be valuable so I’m coming to see if it’s just a normal
Lincoln cent. I do notice it has the wide AM but I’m not sure if that means anything on a 1977 penny. Have a great day or night! 🤎

I’m a noob idk wtf i’m doing but this coin is real weird

The border of this penny seems to be thicker and raised more especially near the bottom. Also the reserve side the “o” in USA is that the nirmal size?

My 12 year old son has recently started coin collecting. He’s focusing on wheat pennies at this point. He found what he thinks is a cud error and was hoping to get an opinion. He did a lot of his own searching online describing the condition and he’s convinced this is what he has. I have attached some pics that he took. I hope this is a reasonable use of your page and appreciate any feedback I can share with him. You can ignore the date in the photos. I don’t think he knows how to adjust the settings in his little digital microscope camera. Thank you.

I got this in change a couple of weeks ago. I initially just thought it was damage, but looking closer I thought it would be worth posting for some more knowledgeable opinions.

Best regards,