1873 Cent

Whatever it is...gotta love them old indians!

Mintmarks signify the Mint of origin, where the coin was made and were not used on Cents until 1908.

Were you suggesting Struck Through Grease?

Which reference books do you utilize for your research?

Agreed Eddie.

I enjoy IHC but honestly I don't know much about them.
I can never pass a chance to thank anyone for serving or for having served our country. So thank you for helping to protect and defend USA.

Wax is not involved at all. A coin press is a big honkin' machine that needs lots of lubrication so grease is prevalent around it. A die is a negative impression of a coin and the recesses of the die can become clogged with said grease and metal dust to the point that there is a significant impairment of detail. This is known as a filled die/struck through grease error. Most of the time, it is an annoyance that ruins an otherwise nice coin. Even though 1873 is a better date IHC, I would expect this coin to fetch less money than another one in a similar grade with a full date simply because part of the date is missing. Sure, it is a minor error and some collect these minor struck though errors but an example of this error type can be found on a much less expensive coin. Major struck though errors can command a premium when significant(>75%) detail is impaired.

Biokemist6, is it possible one can get a little more specificity on just how this happened? Maybe it's not. But, the wild card is, why just that one digit? It seems a little implausible, I'm saying, to simply throw that off on a grease-filled die.

The die is incused. The presses were stopped and maintenance was performed on that die, it was attempted to be wiped clean, and they just didn't notice that area was still plugged when they started the presses back up. Is that the missing link? That would explain that, I'm saying.

Agreed- Grease and gunk can fill the tiniest of areas, the letters FG on the Cent or Half for example, without affecting the surrounding area. When I see a part of the die detail like the 7 in the date in question, it reminds me that I'm looking at a Pre-dropped letter (or numeral). Not that every chunk of gunk falls out perfectly and becomes a dropped letter, but the process is the same.

Many of us associate " Struck Through Grease" with the weakly struck (all over) Lincolns we encounter- that's an example of a larger amount of grease. But as Biokemist states so well, any portion of the die detail can be affected specifically.

It looks to be the "close 3" version, with a smaller mintage of 2.5M (as opposed to 4M)
I would also take a close look at the feather shafts and LIBERTY for any signs of doubling.
On the Snow-1 DDO, the feather shafts and liberty are strongly doubled, which appear thicker in lower grades.
Can't hurt to check...