This happens when mint die grease lubricants are applied too heavily and are forced together by the intense pressure during the minting process which prevents the dies from coming into contact with the coin planchet and imprinting the design as intended.
This can cause all kinds of havoc when minting coins!
With this particular coin the result is a Lincoln Memorial Cent without a mint date, mint mark, nearly the entire word “Liberty” is missing, (only the “L” and partial “RT” in LIBERTY are present) Also missing is the “U” in “In God We Tr_st”.
The Reverse is a normally struck Lincoln Memorial Scene
What year was this coin struck?…UNKNOWN!
Was it minted at the Philadelphia, Denver or San Francisco Mint?…UNKNOWN!
Even though this mint error eliminated important information about this coin…Here’s what we do know about it:
It’s a circulated small cent that features the one and only Abraham Lincoln bust on the obverse and the iconic Lincoln Memorial on the reverse.
It weighs 2.5 grams—so we know it’s a 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper Cent which were only minted starting in mid-1982 until 2008…
It is CIRCULATED and ungraded but it’s a unique coin that I’m sure the right Error Coin Collector would love to have in their coin collection!!
Don’t wait! These coins disappear quickly! Get it while you can!