Greetings, fellow numismatic nerds! Recently I received and photographed what is the only known, and newly discovered, 1943 Lincoln Cent with two Obverse designs. I was contacted by a well-known error enthusiast, Paula Schommer-Blum (who runs Coin Q & A on Facebook and YouTube), who also suspected it could be genuine and recommended the owner to send it to me for an in-hand look. Specifically, it is a full mirrored first-strike brockage of the obverse design on the reverse face. Please do not opine on why you think it isn't genuine; it is. Error experts like Mike Diamond, Saul Teichman, and Jon Sullivan have confirmed my analysis and observation. It's a pleasure I was able to be part of the initial team, along with Paula, to officially declare it genuine, and that it is the only one known in existence with two obverse designs. ~Joe Cronin, author of Mint Errors to Die For (now in the 3rd edition).
Bravo! Amazing find. And still, there are those here that claim "If it hasn't been found by now, it probably isn't real or doesn't exist. " This can snap you back into reality. Always keep up the good search folks.
What a find. I guess I should actually go through all of those steel cents I inherited from my grandfather.
A previously struck cent had its obverse rammed into the reverse of this steel cent planchet and became the reverse die.
I thought the obverse and the reverse dies at that era were of different size stems, so that something like this could not occur unless someone at the mint used a grinder to reduce the stem or adhesive to accommodate such. Or is it OK , even if they did have human assistance to aid someone's pocket as much as possible? So perhaps some experts can explain how this was a non-aided event. If China did this , there would be a lot of "Fake" thrown about. I am not jealous or angry, just want to know how that could occur without deliberate human intervention. Thanks , Jim
