Liberty’s Lost “L”: A Common Occurrence
Liberty’s Lost “L”: A Common Occurrence.
This seller is asking $2450. Please note the die deterioration on eh “E” and “R” in Liberty. This is not an error.
Another Seller asking $1801. For this no “L” & no Mint mark Lincoln cent advertised as an error. The lack of mint mark tells us this was struck at Philadelphia, the “L” is the same type of die deterioration shown on the previous image.
First, it is important to address the misinformation. The images in this article are coins that are being offered for sale through various websites all advertised as errors. Sadly, once again a small group of individuals utilizing YouTube, TikTok, and other social media venues have deceived the public for their own personal gain. These coins are NOT errors and are NOT rare.
Secondly, it is important to understand there are numerous causes of a coin losing part of its design. However, when it comes to pennies in particular the most likely culprit is wear and tear on the dies that produce the coins. Dies are an expensive part of the manufacturing process, costs to have a pair of dies made sometimes exceed $2500.
This is without considering the additional operating costs, maintenance, manpower, transportation, and packaging costs associated with production. Given how little a penny buys and that it costs more than the face value to produce, the mint does everything in its power to save money. This includes using dies long after they would have been retired and replaced for any other denominations. Eventually, this leads to coins that show significant die deterioration that manifests as weakness or loss of design features, the “L” in the word Liberty being so close to the rim is commonplace for this to occur.
Other related issues:
Another, very common manifestation of this issue is in the appearance of mintmarks and legends. As the dies wear it is very common for mint marks to fill or various parts of the wording to deform in small but noticeable ways. In earlier coins from the 1800s, production of coinage was significantly less, and die erosion /die wear could be tracked. With the mass production that coins undergo today, this would be a monumental task. It would involve cataloging thousands of dies each year. The world of coin collecting does not see any value in even attempting such a herculean task as collectors do not generally speaking collect modern coins by die pairings.
Other common occurrences that are not errors:
- Lack of a mintmark on circulation issue coins
- Filled mintmarks
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