1909 S VDB Lincoln

The VDB looks right but the S looks a little strange...IMHO

PS condition AU 55

Looks like rub on the cheek and highest hair points to me, could be just the color difference. I don't see the rub on the reverse, so I will go MS-63 on this one. I am not familiar with authenticating these key Lincoln's yet. I get mine from the shop I work at, and with three expert opinions before they are even bought, I feel pretty secure buying mine raw.

Added mintmark ?
Also, the 2 periods are missing in V.D.B.

I smell a fake.

I don't have my PCGS Guide with me, so I'll just wing it.

As was pointed out, the S is low and outside. The general shape is OK but the upper loop is much thinner than the lower which I don't think is normal. The woodgrain tone around the date looks OK although it seems odd that the inside of the 0 is lighter in color. The staining over the right side of the date and the mintmark is a bit suspicious, also.

My S-VDB (which is not yet authenticated; I have to send it for slabbing!) has periods after each letter of VDB and the B is evenly spaced, not displaced off to the right like on BadThad's coin. On this one the B does have the correct, downward-sloping center stroke.

Gradewise, this looks MS-63 or better to me and the color is RB, more red than brown.

So, what's the real story?

Indeed.....this coin is a counterfeit! I always wanted to own a good one for inclusion into my collection special section.

This coin was close enough to fool a dealer I buy from often. Everytime I'd see him, I'd take a look at that coin. He had it in an early date box that started with his real 1909's. It was the first coin in the box with a price ($1100) and big letters NOT FOR SALE. I laughed everytime I saw it. He knew I enjoyed the coin, but he still wouldn't sell it to me. He kept telling me he paid some guy $660 for it like 15 years ago. He only discovered it was a fake when he sent it to NGC for grading and it came right back to him. Poor guy, he got stuck with it and kind of saved it as a reminder and example to show other collectors.

Well, I finally talked him into selling it to me! I must have asked him 100 times. LOL It wasn't cheap, but I wanted it so badly it was worth it to me.

Bad Thad - If you wanted a fake bad enough, you could have just bid on some coins on ebay

Interesting. Yeah, the S is too far to the right to be real. It comes close to #4, but is still too far away. Also, isn't the last "B" supposed to have a slanted crossbar? Was it an added mintmark?

Truly scary. What does the acetone do?