1982 Nickel RPM Appears As A D And S Upper Left

Why I really don't know

Ok thanks

This mintmark is caused by by a damaged/disfigured mintmark punch. A RPM is caused by a misalignment of separate punchings. The differences? Well, first consider why the mintmark punch gets damaged? The were adding the mintmark with hardened punch, in to a hardened die. After this happens over and over many times, the punch is going to suffer. The dies have the advantage. They are stronger, and only punched once. The punch is slowly altered, affected by the resistance of the stronger dies. On the 1982-D cent/other denominations, we see many mintmarks showing this exact damaged punch issue. So these are not RPMs, but from a damaged punch issue.

The mintmarks are not showing spread, but just distortion. A RPM is created by miss alignment of several punch locations, thus showing spread. Two different issues. We see, the spread an note the enlargement of the mintmark. On a damaged punch issue, the mintmark is normal, not showing spread, but disfigurement from the damaged punch issue.

Why is this information important? Because many dies will show the same disfiguring, on several different locations of the dies.

So it is continually the same damage repeated over and over. So they are not RPMs, but a punch that needs to be retired.

How do collectors get the sense that something is not correct? When you see it over and over, and then it clicks, that is a damaged punch issue. On a roll of new coins I looked at years ago, the whole roll were what I though was RPMs. But there were different locations on the mintmark locations. Then I figured out, it was a damaged punch issue, and not a RPM issue on the dies. Because the mintmark punch was damaged.

Sometimes, when we see a damaged mintmark punch issue, we wonder, why did they attribute a mintmark punch issue, but there were a RPM that was formed with the damaged mintmark punch, but is a RPM on a different area of the die:

Note the same mintmark punch damage on each RPM. But the way it was punched, created a RPM. So sometimes it takes a discerning eye, to determine which is which. Hope this helps.

CoopHome : What is mintmark punch damage?

Hello Chip

Try checking http://www.varietyvista.com/index.htm for the RPM info. There is a lot of useful info on the site.