1980 D Lincoln Cent; new OMM or just die gouge (image link)

[coppersleuth]

Hello folks! I'm new to the forum but have enjoyed this wonderful website for a long time. Kudos to Coppercoins.com for making this tremendous resource available!

Now to my question. Please see the photo of the 1980 D cent. Notice to the West of mintmark a raised line, roughly north/south. Is anybody familiar with this? I suppose it is just a die gouge, but had an intriguing look to it. Was hoping it might be a neat new OMM or something. But it does not have the obvious look of a portion of another D or S or something. Any help would be appreciated!

http://static.flickr.com/77/196953916_676ffbb997.jpg

[Bob P]

Jim,
That's a very nice picture there. As far as the anomaly you point out, I would tend to believe it is a gouge, but even then, I am not convinced of that. Could you maybe post that same picture without the circle around the anomaly??

[coppersleuth]

Thanks Bob! Here are several other angles to hopefully give you a better idea of this anomaly. Let me know what you think!

http://static.flickr.com/63/197630512_66f31fcfd7.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/58/197630511_efc870cc4b.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/66/197630510_eaa0118646.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/59/197630509_76c18b21bc.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/65/197630507_8cecfa2160.jpg

[coop]

Jim: The center image shows what appears as split serifs.

The other marks seem to follow closley the die flow. (The wear pattern shown in the fields. The smother this flow the earlier the die is. The die pattern appears to be VLDS (very late die state)

On the lettering you can see thefields flow into/over the the devices(over the tail of the 9, right of mintmark on second image). In this die state even die wear can sometimes look like something that wasn't there earilier when the coin made a few thousand less. The die flow even looks like the upper serif could be just die flow. I think Bob would have to look this coin over for sure, but it appears to me that it is die wear/die gouges because most (but not all) of the marks fall into the flow area.
Let us know what Bob thinks.

[Bob P]

Jim...Great Pictures. Coop made some good observations about the die state and die flow lines. It looks like it could be an RPM because of the split serifs, but I am pretty much convinced that it is not an OMM. It looks like a well placed die gouge. Your pictures almost make it unnecessary to see the coin in hand, but should you want to send it to me, I will gladly have a closer look and send you a report.