How Common Are The 1988-P And 1988-D Wide AMS?

What am I missing? I thought all 1988 cents were WAMs.

Actually, it is just a confusing variety ID. All 1988 cents are actually Wide AM, but those with the reverse of 1989 are called Wide AM because it is the reverse that was used on the later Wide AM coins. If they just called it reverse of 1989 it would have caused a lot less confusion!

PCGS recognizes this variety as the "1988 Wide AM FS-901" which has a different alternate reverse (from 1989) on both the Philadelphia and Denver mints than the standard 1988 reverse in the variety version so there are several differences on the reverse to look for but typically identified easier from the FG initials on the reverse. You can take a look at the census for each coin on PCGS and NGC to see how many have been graded overall but the Philadelphia issues are considered scarce while the Denver issues are considered rare. https://www.error-ref.com/transitio...rse-of-1989/

See this thread as we just discussed this recently:
http://goccf.com/t/437728#3766859




Yes they are but since there is an alternate reverse from 1989 that can be found there are differences in that variety from the standard 1988 reverse as mentioned.

Two different reverse die designs/numbers were year creating a year variety. (RDV-005 and RDV-006) Different initials design:

And two different designs on the AME on AMERICA.

The easiest way to spot the differences is the AME area.

CoopHome: What is the differences on the RDV-005 and RDV-006 on the 1988 year variety cents? the initials and the AME devices on America