rmpsrpms Loc: Santa Clara, CA

For some reason, the stresses on the obverse die of the Lincoln Cent are greatest within the motto LIBERTY, specifically between the B and the E. Especially from the 1950's onwards, die failure in this area has produced hundreds of examples of the so-called "BIE", where a piece of the die breaks away from between the B and E and results in raised metal that looks like an "I". In the 1960's, collectors cataloged these die errors and collected them by type and by stage of the break, ie as the die break progressed from cracks to full-blown BIE breaks. Today they are not as popular, but a check on eBay will show that there are still collectors out there willing to pay a premium for this interesting variety.

I am a Lincoln Cent variety collector, and am actively searching for Repunched and Over Mintmarks (RPMs and OMMs), Doubled Dies (DDOs / DDRs) and other die varieties such as BIEs. I recently searched a bunch of uncirculated 1954-S Cents for varieties, and found a nice grouping of them. I photographed the interesting finds and documented them here:

http://s943.photobucket.com/user/rparkhurst/library/1954-S%20Roll%20Search?sort=3&page=1

As an example, here is a BIE, Cohen variety 1954-S B506, at 10x straight on, and rendered at an angle to show the depth of the die break:

(Download)


(Download)

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Whoda thunk?

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I'll have to go check my 1954-S pennies. I doubt I have anything other than the usual ones. Thanks for the lesson.