1920S Strange S on reverse?

[amnight]

Hi, I circled an S in the first picture and wanted to know if it is an S or if it is like seeing Jesus on a potato chip?

[willbrooks]

I would say it has to be damage that just looks like an s. Is it raised on incuse on the coin? If raised, it could be some odd damage to the die. Doesn't really look like a dropped letter.

[busyeye]

That sure does look like an S on that Lincoln!

[amnight]

It is incused and I'm pretty sure it is an S.

[willbrooks]

But it is too small to be from a regular design element. It suppose it might be close to the size of the mint mark, but you would have to do an overlay to establish that. I also couldn't explain how it would end up in that area, and incuse, and not mirror-imaged, unless it is a dropped letter of gunk from the mint mark that somehow got under the next planchet. That seems really far-fetched. Let's see what Jason or MikeD say. There was another recent thread where Mike described several scenarios where normally oriented incuse elements can be made. I still think it is most likely PSD.

[Jacob]

Sorry its just Jesus in a potato chip. It was just damaged to look like an S. Ive came across stuff like this before and made me second guess too but all in all its just PMD.

[amnight]

Correction to my previous post earlier today regarding the Jesus/Potato Chip Picture.
The 'S' in the first picture is NOT sunken into the coin...it sits ontop of the coin just like a normal mint mark...sorry for the total confusion. Your opinion is still desired, now that I have lost you all with misinformation. Thank You!

[flyhi3]

like seeing Jesus on a potato chip?

:LOL_Hair: Yes, like seeing Jesus on a potato chip. Just PMD(Post Mint Damage), but very interesting PMD at that.

[willbrooks]

Correction to my previous post earlier today regarding the Jesus/Potato Chip Picture.
The 'S' in the first picture is NOT sunken into the coin...it sits ontop of the coin just like a normal mint mark...sorry for the total confusion. Your opinion is still desired, now that I have lost you all with misinformation. Thank You!

Ok, so if it is actually raised on the coin, I would say it is some odd die damage, or actual coin damage that pushed metal up in the area. It is tough to see in your photo, but there is other damage in that area. It is in an "impossible" place for it to be a clash of the mint mark, and it's a tough sell that someone punched one there on the reverse die. Also, as I said, it is too small to match any other design element. Did you do a size comparison on it with the mint mark? It's probably too small for that too, but I didn't do a comparison. Just going by eye.

[amnight]

I did a couple of overlays one with the obverse S on top of the reverse S and also one with the reverse S on top of the obverse S. I also attached the pictures I used. Thanks Will.

[jcuve]

Being the supposed S seems to have channeling around it, I would be inclined to say it was coincidental damage. Was your shot of the mintmark to scale with the supposed S on the reverse? Is has to be one to one to mean anything. There cannot be any resizing involved.

[amnight]

Jcuve, there was no resizing involved.