Is this post mint or maybe a dropped letter/fragment?

[JRocco]

Came across this 51D circ. Lincoln and it shows what might be a dropped letter, or does this look post mint? It is both incuse and raised. Not sure on this one.

[coppercoins]

If the center of the "letter" is raised higher than the lapel would normally be raised, you have a case of free metal displacement....post-mint.

If the center of the "letter" is at the same level in relief as the lapel, you have closed metal displacement indicating that the die was on the coin when the disfigurement was made. That makes it a mint error, a "struck-through" error.

So...if the oddity is a mint error, what is the shape? Doesn't appear to match anything on the cent design, so I would have to say it would be a fragment of foreign metal ir something like that. Not sure, though....just my educated guess.

[JRocco]

Hi Chuck, thanks for the reply. The center of the "letter" is at the same level of the relief on the lapel. It has that eye catching look, which is what made me put it aside long ago. I just came across it again and once again- it caught my eye.