1909 S VDB Lincoln Wheat Cent - Verify

Hey TB, the weight of the coin, or lack thereof, could possibly be from the amount of circulation wear that is visible in your exceptional pics. Looks like a lot of metal has been removed from that cent especially on the obverse. As far as the mm, I am not quite sure.

As Zurie noted the position matches for Die #2, however I do have concerns. There appear to be what could be tooling marks around the mint mark area. In addition, I have yet to come across a poorly struck up S-VDB, which given the weakness of 'WE' and 'VDB' is a concerning factor as the weakness perfectly removes the crossbar of the 'B' of 'VDB' which is a diagnostic point. My honest opinion is that I wouldn't tough this with a 10m pole.

Take four very important steps:

1. post here in the CCF and read the answers
2. close examination with a 10X loupe looking specifically for coin alteration,
3. take it to a coin dealer for another opinion,
4. after all of this, you may decide that shipping and grading fees are justifiable, to submit to a TPG for authentication and slabbing.

You have already taken the first.

@tropicalbats, I like your idea of a slightly tapered planchet accounting for the weak WE, VDB, and low weight. But the rim in that area looks unusually strong, and wouldn't the bottom of the VDB be weaker than the top if that were the case?

I think your best bet to verify authenticity is to find the small die gouge above RU, although I think that may only be present in later die states of die position #2.

Thanks for the great comments. I will need to try and look up what the die gouge above the RU looks like, as might be something light there but need a shape to match.

I'm not overly concerned about the weight, as it shows all the signs of a slightly tapered planchet, but just worried that it would be a hard sell down the road without something on there other than mm placement to guarantee it is legit. The coin was in a slip when I bought it, and I could see the cleaning and damage, but without a solid marker and the unique weakness I honestly think it's be troublesome to sell it as too many people would find too many things odd about it.

Die #2 should have a very small tangent/tail at the base of the second 9 of the date that I am not seeing in your date close-up.

@tropicalbats, here's a picture of the small die gouge or scratch over the letters RU in TRUST. It's cropped from a Heritage photo, so not the greatest image, but at least it gives you the location.