Expert: PAPAJACK - 5/1/2008

Question
I have approx 80 pennies from 1957 with the Denver mint mark.  There seems to be several variations on the location of the "D".  On what I would consider normal the D appears to be located under the year and between the 9 and 5.  But on one coin the D is almost directly below the 5; on a few others the D is located more to the left under the 9 and the D is slightly cocked to the left; one coin has a third variation where the D seems to be smaller than normal.

I haven't found anything indicating there were mint errors on the 1957 D.  Could these coins be mint errors?

I appreciate your input.

Answer
Hello Karen,                        

Since you have gone through so many Cents with such scrutiny I am sending you to a page that can help you identify a “doubled mint mark” coin that might be more collectable than what you describe.

Here is a list of the known re-punched mint marks for your date.
http://conecaonline.org/content/lincolnrpms19561957.html
Some examples of Double Mint Marks;
http://conecaonline.org/image/1957DRPM003b.JPG
http://conecaonline.org/image/1957DRPM005b2.JPG

As for the position of a mint mark;
Having many dies made and used for production the placement of the mint mark is never in the exact same place when done by hand alone.
This only creates a variety not an error coin or type.

Slight misplacement of the mint mark is common and carries no premium over the fair market value on any coin.

This is a very good article by a trusted expert in the field on why information like your describe is not always published or even listed for all these minor differences on coins.

http://conecaonline.org/content/TreatmentMinorVarieties.html

Imagine a Morgan dollar dealer selling each dollar at a different price according to the state the die was in when it struck the coin, or how far a crack extended into some obscure feature. This defect was there for an 800,000 piece run but not everybody knows this fact and inexperienced collectors will overpay for a common coin. This will ruin the hobby altogether.

Here is an excerpt if you don’t want to read the whole article;
” this resulted in an explosion of so-called "new" varieties that promoters began marketing. For a while such coins sold but later as buyers wanted to cash in or finders of the varieties wanted to sell, they learned that the buy-market was perhaps $1 or $2 per roll (for cents) and so on. As a result, the coin market collapsed.
In backlash, new catalogers shunned listing such items not just because they were too common to list as individual die varieties but also because they knew they were common types of variations that could be abused in the market by some promoters -- which in turn could give the error-variety hobby a "black eye." There was also a desire to categorize varieties into strict classifications based on causes rather than catchy nicknames that it was felt were all to often used to inflate or conceal the true significance or "identity" of a coin.”

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Thank You and Good Luck

PapaJack