Differences in mint mark letter 1988

[MiciDragan]

Hi,

I had a little hunt on the 1988s yesterday and was surprised by the variation the the D letter showed on various coins.
The person punching the mark at the Denver mint must have been pissed off on someone or something.

[Frank]

Hi,

I had a little hunt on the 1988s yesterday and was surprised by the variation the the D letter showed on various coins.
The person punching the mark at the Denver mint must have been pissed off on someone or something.

Yep, nothing like beating on something with a hammer to ease those tensions!

There's info here on "S" MM types, but I don't see anything for Denver...here or elsewhere. Was going to try and point you to something like that for reference, sorry!

[jfines69]

Here you go... Variety Vistas (VV) Mint Mark Styles http://varietyvista.com/01b%20LC%20D...k%20Styles.htm Did you check the rev for the proper Reverse Design Variety (RDV)??? On the center coin there appears to be something to the east of the primary MM... It may just be plating bubbles but I can not tell for sure... All of the MMs have some minor dings on them as well as some split plating!!!

[Maineman750]

We have to keep in mind that the mint marks were punched onto the dies in 1988, so differences in the amount of pressure and even slightly tilting the punch can make the final result look different even if the actual style did not change.

[MiciDragan]

jfines69 do you think that a mint mark from other years could have been used? My initial thought was that the mint mark was just hit harder than usual. I will take a closer look at it tomorrow and upload obverse and reverse of that coin. What struck me was that the 1988 coins had a lot of scratches across the fields compared to other years. I didn't see many nice strikes in that year, on the other hand only around 100 coins to look at.

[GrumpyEd]

I think they only had one punch or punch style for the year, what you see are differences in how hard they punched the dies and the positions and if it was polished later then the MM looks smaller or less raised.

Yes, 1988 is a year that tends to have massive polishing lines. There are other years that are similar but in general I'd say it was a year with a lot of brutal polishing compared to most years, massively more than you'll see on the recent years.

My own thought (may or may not match everyones) is polishing was harsh on zincs from 82-97 then started getting less brutal from around 98 on it was less harsh as the years passed. Of course you'll find deviations to that but that's the general trend.

[jfines69]

jfines69 do you think that a mint mark from other years could have been used? My initial thought was that the mint mark was just hit harder than usual. I will take a closer look at it tomorrow and upload obverse and reverse of that coin. What struck me was that the 1988 coins had a lot of scratches across the fields compared to other years. I didn't see many nice strikes in that year, on the other hand only around 100 coins to look at.

Anything is possible... Just that the probability of it happening comes into the mix!!!

[BarryG]

Take a look at this thread 1987D & 1988D Large MM

[MiciDragan]

BarryG, thanks for the link. I have added some more images and the mint letter D is indeed similar to the one on my 1988. Upper left wind is prominent while the lower left wing is more retracted. I save the coin for future.

[silver1985]

What is Sept 16, 1966?