1969-S Lincoln Penny - Floating Roof And Weak FG - Opinions Please

A floating roof can potentially appear on any year Memorial cent
as it is the result of die polishing. They are quite common
and regardless of what ebay listings say, they add no premium.

I have hunted Lincoln Cent varieties for a little while now and found a few hundred DDRs, DDOs, and RPMs . I am always willing to learn, however I never remember seeing any varieties on VV, CC or Wexler's that were varieties because of the floating roof? HGK3 can you please provide some examples so I can see what you are talking about? If true, there should be a very many examples of individual varieties you can site as floating roofs occur on many different years of memorial cents.

First, a mea culpa.

I read the OP as being in regard to the 1969 D variety rather than in regard to the 1969 S that was pictured. Silly mistake made in haste.

That said, everything I wrote was in regard to the 1969 D variety, so we are in agreement concerning the pictured 1969 S LMC.

The only quibbles I have are first the name "No FG" is not entirely descriptive of the variety. In order to qualify, the 1969 D variety must be missing both the FG and the roof lines. "No FG" is just a shortened descriptor and sometimes accuracy is sacrificed in name choice. Remember when the 1988 LMC variety was called "1988 WAM" for all those years even though technically " WAM" was the normal reverse?

Second, despite the name, Variety Vista does not include all known varieties. Love the site, use it almost every day, but they don't include a number of varieties that don't fall into the categories they have listed, such as the Buffalo nickel varieties I mentioned before.

I use the site and recommend it, but it's not definitive by any means so don't assume if it's not listed it's not a recognized variety.

Again, apologies for misreading the OP and taking this down a (slightly) different road that it didn't need to go down.

delisted as a Varity.
It was listed in the 5th edition of the Cherry Pickers Guide because they thought the mint made a mistake and left the FG off the die.

Then it was figured out it was an over polished die and it was removed from the 6th edition

I agree JBuck and 100% with HGK3. (Floating Roofs/No FG are not my cup of tea either.) It is a variety though. These are not very desirable or "mainstream" to most collectors.

Varieties deviate from a "normal" coin made by the mint and have multiple examples of the same die pair. Some varieties are valuable monetarily and some are not. It kind of depends on collector interest and demand.

I also agree with jbuck that it is not a variety and would be a good idea to keep one as an example for reference -


Petespockets55,
I always am trying to learn but I have some questions.
Are you saying that every different year and mm that has this over die polishing are each individually separate varieties? as far as I know these occur from the mid 60s to early 70s. Maybe outside of that range as well.

If the answer is yes, where can I find listings of these many variety listings so that I may identify them properly? I would assume that every die pair that has this issue would be a separate variety?




By this broad definition would every cent that has a die chip, gouge, or crack also be considered a separate variety? That just does not seem right. I recently sent in a 1969S LMC that I thought might be a new DDR variety to an attributor that you all know. I was told it was just a die gouge and not a variety. Please help me understand your position more clearly.

First, even if such a list were to exist it would not be determinative. In other words, just because someone says so doesn't make it so.

All the major variety sites have disagreements between themselves for that very reason. There are RPMs and doubled dies on Wexler that are not on VV for instance because of disputes on the status of the variety. Does that make one site right and the other wrong? In fact, if you stick around the hobby long enough you'll see examples of disagreements of this type getting resolved by consensus.

Second, the three legged and the two feather Buffalo nickel varieties were created by the exact same process as all the floating roof varieties so you cannot logically exclude one from the definition and include the others.

I agree with PP that this makes every over polished die technically meet the definition of a variety but it doesn't impart desirability to the variety, and variety and desirability are what determine value, not just the definition applied.

If someone wanted to create such a list (and it wouldn't surprise me if there was a collector willing to try) it would be an interesting documentation process, but it wouldn't necessarily do anything to change the desirability of those varieties.

The hobby operates not by fiat but by consensus generally, which is what makes it so attractive. The apparent removal of the "FS" designation from the 1969 D variety is an an expression of the consensus of the hobby as to it's desirability and value and not to the applicability of the definition.