1946-S Inverted "s" Lincoln Cent

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coppercoins Pillar of the Community United States 7629 Posts	Posted 09/29/2008 08:34 am Morgansrmine and lincolncollector both show coins with large or 'serif' style mintmarks. They are not the same style mintmarks as the reported coin with an inverted mintmark, so they cannot be the same thing. BJ's coin is the ball serif mintmark style with a triangle serif and a ball serif. The ball is supposed to be on the top, and in the case BJ posted it is on the bottom - inverted. I cannot see lincolncollector's coin well enough to tell what's going on with it, but Morgansrmine's coin is definitely properly oriented. It is not inverted. There were three styles of mintmarks used in 1946 in San Francisco. Two of them are illustrated above, then there is a third style that has no serifs at all. It is aptly named the 'sans-serif' mintmark style. Over a number of years of collecting the information from every 1946S cent I have viewed, and with the help of others who have reported to me what they have, the following information has been gathered: 1946S serif style : 3,212 coins reported...59% of all coins reported. 1946S sans-serif style : 1,944 coins reported...36% of all coins reported. 1946S ball-serif style : 263 coins reported...5% of all coins reported. Once generalist collectors run out of other things to collect they will eventually turn to the mintmark styles of S-mint coins of the 1940s, and one of the first coins they will turn to will be the ball-serif style mintmark of 1946S cents. Cherry red examples will probably sell for good money - if the slabbing companies turn to recognize their rarity and start annotating the style as a variety on their holders. I'm waiting - with 1.5 rolls of uncirculated ball-serif 1946S cents I have assembled over the past 10 years...yup, 10 years it took to assemble a single roll and a half in uncirculated condition. Report this Post to the Staff
coppercoins Pillar of the Community United States 7629 Posts	Posted 09/29/2008 08:40 am By the way, the 1946S ball serif mintmark style represents the lowest known percentage of strikes of any mintmark style variety in Lincoln cents. The 1928S large mintmark represents roughly 20% of all surviving 1928S cents, and the 1941S large S and small S mintmarks are realistically nearly even in number. Other years that exhibit differing mintmark styles are 1944S, 1945S, 1947S, 1948S(?), 1952D, 1979S, and 1981S. I put a question mark on the 1948S because there are reports of a second mintmark style existing that year, but to date I have never seen confirmation nor an example in image or in hand. The only confirmed style of mintmark for 1948S is the serif style like the one in Morgansrmine's photograph. Report this Post to the Staff
MorgansRmine Pillar of the Community United States 1219 Posts	Posted 09/29/2008 09:23 am Charles, sometimes you"ve got to knock me along side the head a couple of times to make things sink in. Is it just over polishing that makes it appear to be a ball on the bottom of of the coins we posted? Heres another, sans serif? Report this Post to the Staff
BJ Neff Pillar of the Community United States 526 Posts	Posted 09/29/2008 09:50 am Chuck has covered it all and I agree. BJ Neff Report this Post to the Staff
coppercoins Pillar of the Community United States 7629 Posts	Posted 09/29/2008 6:06 pm Yes, that is a sans-serif style mintmark. Report this Post to the Staff
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