Question About Recently Made BU Lincoln Cents

Really zinc bubbles? hmmm. These look more like oil spots or something of the sort on the surface. But seriously, take a look at the surfaces of still BU pennies in circulation from 2007& 2008. Most of these coins have the small, black spots.

arthrene-yeah, those definitely look more like zinc bubbles, and not at all like the black spots. Honestly I just opened a BU roll yesterday and it just seemed that every coin inside was just covered with those small black blotches. They really make a nice BU coin not very attractive.

The black spots are carbon based organic substances (carbon specks). They get on the coins right from the mint(s) manufacturing and processing. It could be from the metalworking fluid they use, poor handling/storage, human body fluids, etc. It's something Lincoln collectors have to deal with as they happen frequently. The bad thing, they are irremovable, if you do manage to remove them, the coin will be damaged.

So, welcome to my world, I've been complaining about carbon specks on Memorial cents for a long time. I've also said over and over, putting together a high quality Memorial set is VERY, VERY difficult. People think just because there's billions and billions made, it's easy.....yea, if you don't care about quality. The vast majority of them are dinged, from worn dies and have black spots. Even when taken from mint sets, they are normally only about MS62-63 in quality!

I've been working hard on my Memorial series, it's a painstaking process and nearly impossible to find MS65+ quality in every date/mint mark. I'm about the only guy at the coin shows I go to looking through Memorial cents (when I can even find them there). Collectors and dealers don't like them, just not worth messing with in their opinions I guess. I don't care, it's a personal mission for me....to have an ultra high quality (MS65+), complete Memorial set....no spots, no dings and well struck.

errorfinder, BadThad, & biokemist6- Thanks a bunch for all of the info! I was worried that this query would go unanswered. I figured that it must have been from some sort of fluid at the mint. I am not at all surprised that there is no way to remove them. I guess that a lot of people just don't care enough about memorial cents these days.

toniblab- so do you mean that you amassed sets of spot-free coins & sold them? so in essence there is a market for memorials that lack the unsightly spots?

Whoa....that's very high for a 2007! But if it's flawless, I'd consider paying. Just wait, the memorials will get their due some day. My memorial set is about as good as they get.

toniblab- so is the US gov actually actively pulling pre-1982 pennies from circulation in order to melt them down?