1962 Penny...filling In Front Of Queen

Looks like the Letter E in front of her mouth!
Tear drop in her eye!
Nice looking coin!

Quite common, especially for the obverse of 1962. Overpolishing of the die, towards the end of its useful life, likely caused this. The edges of the devices, which are incuse relative to the fields, probably get rounded off a bit. When the coins is struck, these abraded edges allow metal to flow along the edges of the devices and shallow areas close to the fields that were buffed a bit too much. This is common from small cents of the early 1940s right through to the late 1980s. You also see this on some 1942 tombac 5c coins. What is really cool, is finding coins whereby both the reverse and obverse dies are like this, 1977 is a year that one can find that phenomena on both sides, fairly easy. Here is my example, both the obverse and reverse with overpolished and abraded dies. Note that this is not a weak strike, the deepest part of the dies (i.e., highest parts of the devices), are fully struck.

Your example looks like an earlier phase of wear, than mine. Here is my 1962, with the die abraded down so much that the metal flows everywhere around the devices, not just as thin bands. The Queen's ribbon and a lock of hair is detached from the head, and her nose is also detached from the face. Yet, the coin is fully struck, as you can see the high points on the leaf on the reverse.

Pennysaver, if you want one like mine, drop me a note, I have over half a roll of them in BU grade, and I will give you one, if you pay for the postage.

Thanks, SPP! Note has been sent!

I notice that your 2nd penny looks like it has a combination of beads and denticles on the obverse - a very cool effect. I've got a couple of nickels with that same situation on them, so now I see I'd best check them over for other evidence of worn dies. Die Deterioration has always been a fascination for me ever since I was a kid, and as an adult I find myself looking more and more for straight sets of coins showing progressive die wear. It may take me a lifetime to get most of them, but it keeps me off the streets... lol

Thanks Wert. It is the reverse of a Trade dollar, from Sherwood Park, Alberta. I called Sherwood Park home for 7 years, and rekindled my collecting interests while living there. I was on ebay and at Alberta coin shows as "Sherwood Park Pennies". When I moved to Ottawa, I thought about changing my ebay handle to "Nepean Nickel Dollars" or "Capital Coins", but my collecting friends and dealers convinced me that my grading skills and reputation were built on a name - so I kept it. I only recently found this Trade dollar, and thought, since I kept my ebay handle, and essentially my "dealer name" after I moved to Ottawa, that this would be a really cool logo for me.... (blame Wert for hijacking the thread! )

A nice coin although as SPP said it is prettycommon l have a bunch of them on several years. But still a very nice piece to add to your collection

change4thebetter! Those are some impressively worn dies! Sorry to further hijack this thread, but why do the tombac nickels commonly have Die Deterioration and die cracks? (My avatar coin has a few die cracks and also seems to have been struck on a die with deterioration) Is it a side effect of using tombac instead of nickel? I wouldn't think so since tombac is a brass alloy which (I believe) is softer than regular nickel.

Thanks all for the replies.