1984 No FG Lincoln Cent

Not really seeing anything special about this CENT, just a die crack on the reverse - one that is seen very often in this location.
So, I would say no, to not send it in for grading. The value of this coin is not worth the cost of grading.

I agree about it not being a good idea to grade the coin. Variety grading fees are high and I don't believe there is an active designation on the 1984s for no FGs which would leave ANACS as probably the only company that MIGHT attribute it.

That said, I don't agree that it's a spender and that it has no value. I absolutely love this coin community but it can be frustrating to see so many people being so quick to call coins "spenders" simply because they personally wouldn't purchase the coin. I wish instead, people would advise OPs to look at ebay completed sales for similar coins. In this case a quick search would show that a person recently sold a similar coin for $26.19: https://www.ebay.com/itm/333727515272

Could you sell yours for the same amount? Maybe, maybe not, but being quick to dismiss coins as having no value is too often an opinion that's inaccurate. As long as there is even a tiny collector base (which there are plenty of people who collect no FGs) then coins like this can sell for a premium.

I think this is a really interesting and important topic. I also meant no disrespect by my comment.

To your point I would never, ever, recommend being deceptive in selling and/or price gouging. My point is that coins in general can sell based on shifting fads and consumer interests. It's not up to us or dealers to determine what other people are interested in buying and collecting.

What's particularly interesting in this situation is almost everyone would agree a coin like a 1972 D Kennedy no FG has value. It's recognized by all the major grading companies and MS examples can sell in the thousands of dollars. Yet it's the exact same type of error/variety but on a different coin. The community deems coins like the 1972 D no FG as an acceptable variety to collect and purchase so why is it unacceptable for people to collect the same error on a different coin? My main point is simply that if there's an active market for a coin then that coin will generally have a premium value over face.

Again, I love this community and meant no disrespect. I also really appreciate the back-and-forth on this topic because I do think it's an incredibly important one to discuss.

Thanks for your reply!

@CR. Thanks for your way to explain what you think and also for your philosophy for this topic.

In order to understand the varieties and mint error you has to study the production ways for different years. You mention the 72 JFK halve and compare with this 84 penny. You can not, potato's are potato's and apple's are apple's.

You to understand: All varieties and errors are documented to be real and not only by experts, but also accepted by the Mint. Theirs reports always mention the errors gone in the market or the varieties and accept those coins as Legal Coins. It is work like this.

For your penny: More and more we see those missing the FG. It is not an error of the Mint it is something easy (relative) to be done after minting. Someone somewhere do 'it this job then sell them. For that year all the dies was done in the essay facility New York and after ship the the Mint location. The FG (the signature) is part of the design and is not print after the die is engraved. So if no print grease is involve in the process (which it is a normal event) it is a aftermarket job.

Speculative people are everywhere but a serious collector NO. I do not know any really collector which will buy this coin. You can have this price?!?, good for you, but this coin is not an error or variety.

Thanks for the patience to read this.

Welcome Muncie. The prices are direct proportional with demand, interest, and rarity.

Hope you find very interesting and rare coins on your grandfather collection. Please share here and you will have the answer and all here will be happy to assist and help.

We are here to train you, so that you know what you have when you see it. On this one the devices were polished off the die. This has happened through the years on all designs. But people think they were not there to begin with. Which is a false idea. They were polished off the die. The grading companies are getting rich on grading these. But later when the seller tries to a premium, they realize the value is not there for even the fees. On the 1969-D Cents PCGS stopped grading their variety. (probably realized that it is common to find)

CR. I was probably a little blunt in my post. I've only been a member on this site for 7 years, been collecting since the mid 60s. So, I guess I'm a grumpy old man. I see first time or new posters come on and the first question out of the gate is [how much should I list this on ebay]?A lot of them don't come back. They have no idea that there coin spent a month on a parking lot. They think every coin they see that's not bright and shiny has to be an error from the mint, or they think they need to send it in to be graded. As other members say, this site is to educate others as much as posable. This site has almost everything you want to know about coins, well almost everything. I learn a lot from this site. I've bought a lot of stuff on the bay, but you have to sift through all the bs dealers. If we can educate a few of them before they go down the wrong road that would be good.