1943-D Steel Revisted RPM?

If you looked on the date also you should see the same exaggerated marks on it as well. Plating/re-processing can enhance something that is not there. Just as Bill said: "It distorts". The surface on re-plated/reprocess coins is very lumpy as the laying is uneven. It like a painting of a wall with a brush or roller. The texture is different from the original, distorted or filled in and rising where it didn't have it before it was painted.

What exactly are we to look for on the date that would indicate that the coin has an RPM ?

Okay...a primer.

The dies for 1943 cents wore in a very odd way because of the planchets they used - made of steel. A lot of times if the mintmark has blurring in any direction, if it's die wear, the date will have the same blurring. if the date is very clean and the mintmark looks like this one, then it's probably a repunched mintmark, but closer examination would be necessary to tell for sure.

By very far and away 1943 is the most difficult date to detect genuine repunched mintmarks, and it's also the most reported date that actually has nothing going on. It's all due to the odd die wear, odd planchet metal, the number of them that were reprocessed, and the fact that they catch attention of even generalist collectors. Very few people bother paying attention to a 1942D cent when there's a 1943D cent sitting next to it. Human nature.

For coffeegod...

All 1943 cents were made of steel plated in zinc. Some of them were replated a number of years later by fast-buck entrepeneurs looking to sell 'shiny' coins to unknowledged collectors. These were most often plated in zinc, but in some cases were nickel or mecury plated.

"Shell casing" cents specifically notes the cents made between 1944 and 1947 that were made from copper that was reclaimed from the war effort. A large majority of this copper had been brass shell casings. The alloy was refined and rather purified so that it closely resembled the older bronze, but trace amounts of gunpowder and sulphur in the metal caused it to react differently over time than other cents. They often have an orange to greenish orange color when they tone. Chemically their composition is slightly different than cents from other years...so we call them shellcase bronze cents.

Anyhow, the term 'shellcase' has nothing at all to do with 1943 cents.

thanks metalman

found.

Steel cents, ummmmmmmmmmm...........errrrrrrrrrrrrr...............no comment.