1913-S Lincoln Cent Weak 3 Variety Or Worn Out?

Coop, thanks for your insight into my photography. As I said, this is a brand new digital microscope. Probably no need to take a pic of my "setup" because I was only using the LED lights that come with the unit. I dialed the light down because it looked more true color-wise. But, now that you point out the graininess it seems so obvious (to my defense it was really late last night when I tried taking the pic). Maybe I should have went to bed instead. ;)

Another "problem" I discovered as soon as you mentioned graininess was resolution. The software defaults at low resolution for some reason, so the first pic was shot using 2 MP resolution. I discovered I have to manually set the resolution to 5 MP each time I open the capture program. The other issue is as you said, lighting or rather lack of lighting (I had turned off the overhead room light too).

To address the lighting I have two photography lamps that my Dad used back in the old film days when he did some copy work (which are still boxed up at the moment). The stand that came with my Celestron scope has minimum up and down adjustment (you can see I can't get the whole coin into the photo). I have ordered a piece of 24" long stainless steel tube that has a 5/8" diameter to replace the short tube that it originally come with (5.5" long). I figure I'll need a rod that is about 12" to 14" long. Ok, I'm rambling, long story short, I'm working on my photography setup.

Back to the 1913-S LWC, is this photo better? It's using the full 5 MP resolution and I have tried to supplement the lighting a bit for now until I get something better cobbled together.

Oh yeah, this bad boy is wore out. But, the 1913-S is also sort of a semi-key date. This one I found in circulation back in my younger days. I've upgraded the coin, so this one is an extra now.

The Kansas quarter comes to mind with the first T in TRUST filled with grease to make it say, "IN GOD WE RUST." It might also explain why there were others with a missing T. I have one of these too (see crappy pic). That one might be my next victim to photograph.

I go from one extreme to the other, I guess.

Those old photography lights I got from my father are not going to work. They aren't copy lights like I thought, these are big studio lights with 12" reflectors. I need something much smaller in order to fit into my man cave (den).

This is the best photo I can do for now.

Batboy, even tho the lighting is off, sometimes that shows other points of interest. I do think the T is a filled die issue, the # may be weak, but most all 1913 coins seem to lose the 3 in circulation no matter what mint. That's either a master die issue or just the wear factor. All the early teen's seemed to wear on the outer devices first.

What I'm seeing is in the area of the field below the missing T and down almost to date seems more "worn" for a lack of term, pushed in more on the right side of the field.
Something to do w/ polished die perhaps? Don't see that so much on most recent pic?