1900-D Indian Head Penny

Earle42 I think you might have misunderstood me I didn't say the D was incuse only the hole was very slightly incuse. Odd thing is how did the camera pick it up in the first place since it was basically invisible to the naked eye. Another thing is with the location of the D with it being between the 3rd feather and the O in Of there really isn't a lot of space to use a punch without damaging the detail in the bust and the United States Of America device though I don't know if small diameter letter punches (possibly the same diameter as a 8 penny or smaller nail)exist. Are there any letter punches out there that still use the same font as seen on the mystery D and the D in United? Would this D qualify as a Ghost since it isn't visible to the naked eye unless you maneuver it in the light till it appears?


Also if you want weird I was just physically examining the Indian Head penny again a minute ago the location of the D in the picture is not where the D on the coin is actually located. Where the picture has the D located between the 3rd and 4th feather it is actually located dead center over the 3rd feather.

lets see if these help a little

don't know if this is better but for a weird reason the image shifted of the D the closer I focused I think it is giving my camera fits or something.

52raymo it is barely visible in both photos but it shifted closer to the O for some reason. look for the outline of the D to the bottom left corner of the O I went Max zoom and I ain't doing that again it was causing me problems just trying to hold the camera steady while at the same time trying to hold my 70 lumen LED flashlight on it to get more light.

Now it looks like an S in the close-up photo.

Well these are Bronze coins so I don't know if they are cast or not so these are probably pockmarks from the casting process. I'm still thinking the D was from a altered die there is just too much going on for it to be a counter stamp. What type of Die was used for the bronze planchettes versus the prior copper planchettes?

I honestly don't know what they did with the equipment after the Dalohogna mint closed. But I highly doubt the equipment was scrapped the government back in the late 19th century probably reused a lot of the Dalohogana equipment and were probably installed in the new Denver Mint back in 1906. And the punches would have still been in use till 1907 when the new dies were put into production with the new miniaturization equipment that just came out in 1907. And this is a 1900 IHC not 1901.


BTW I checked coins from Dalohogana online and the size and font style are very similar if not the same to the mark on my coin. I am wondering if it was possible that the Philadelphia Mint was experimenting to see if the the punches would work on the new dies or someone messed up and put it in the wrong spot on the die. But as for PMD the location of the D and lack of any damage to the bust and devices rule out anything done by hand it is just to precise a strike to have been done by hand and the coin wasn't deformed in any way.