Doing Good Tonight-1957 P BIE Cent

hehehehe must be the night for BIE cents. I think I found the Daddy of all BIE cents tonight.

All of these BIE cents are cool. Congrats on pulling one = )

Here is one on a 1994 cent I found.

Siamnbass, great question! Lets see what the members think.

I used to think it was caused from die clashes on the wheat cents as the wheat ears strike that location during a clash.

But with the Memorial cents there is nothing clashing in that area.

So I'm at a loss to say what causes it. But they keep happening. I would like to find one on the Shield Cent.

Sorry that last post was resubmitted by accident-that's a cool cent coop-back to the bie...it couldn't be from a die break or gouge? Not sure which I'm trying to say but I mean when a part of the die breaks off and causes a gap and that's where the extra metal gets pushed into?

I've got one, of those big BIE cents that is just starting to form, It shows the outline if the area that inevitably gets filled in.

That isn't the only place BIE cents happen - though it seems the most common. I have seen them between the "LI" "IB" "BE" and on rare occasions between the "ER".

My best guess is the BIE die design may have an area that either collects die chips and fragments, and eventually releases them when a strong enough strike will allow the material to be packed well enough to remove it from the die. In other words, it may be a gap in the design that has enough room there that when hammered hard enough allows for the die to clean itself. All other areas probably need the die removed to clean excess copper off the die when it accumulates.