1931-S LWC, From Album, Grade?

Yeah, me too, it is odd, not sure if it had an old cleaning or just mishandled along the way to be honest.

Check the 28D post, added a photo these are coming out slightly darker than reality

EF-40, nice key date! CONGRATS!

One way to distinguish the counterfeits from a genuine 1931-S are the position of the "3" and last "1" in the date and of the "3" relative to the mint mark.

The line across the top of the first and last "1" should cut off the top of the "3." The line across the bottom of the first and last "1" should only clip a small portion of the bottom curl of the "3." The line connecting the top and bottom ends of the curls of the "3" should cut through the top serif of the mint mark. A diagonal line from the bottom of the first "1" touching the end inside curl of the "9" should intersect the middle bar of the "3."

Here is a known genuine 1931-S (from NGC's site):


Here is your coin, with the same marking lines:


It could just be the photo blurring on enlargement, but the diagonal misses the middle bar of the "3" and the points of the "3" don't align with the serif of the mm. Also, the last "1" looks wrong, and it could either be damaged from circulation or be an altered "7." Better (higher resolution) photos of the date would help.

@Coinfrog, I just don't know whether this one is authentic or counterfeit. The photo is too small and not high enough resolution to be sure of where the marker lines fall.

The 1931 PDS date alignments will be identical. I've only seen the "S" mm with the top serif lined up with the tips of the "3" as shown on the NGC coin. A mintage of 866,000 would be a LOT of coins from one die pair in that era. Based on the monthly mintage figures, 800,000 were struck early in the year and the last 66,000 later in the year. If they came from one die pair, it would explain the mushy strikes and abundance of LDS coins.

On this coin, I really don't like the looks of the last "1" in the date. That's my biggest concern. The other alignment markers could just be off from the photo.

So many of these coins sat in mint bags and bank rolls for years. The spotting and odd coloration of many 1931-S cents suggests that the storage conditions generated the odd coloration. It seems fairly even across the surface.