page_title: Penny (United States coin)
section_title: Mint errors specific to Lincoln cents
hierarchical_section_title: Penny (United States coin) / Lincoln cent / Mint errors specific to Lincoln cents
caption_attribution_description: English: PIA16131: Lincoln Penny on Mars in Camera's Calibration Target http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16131 The penny in this image is part of a camera calibration target on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the rover took this and other images of the MAHLI calibration target during the 34th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Sept. 10, 2012&#160;UTC). The image was acquired with MAHLI at a distance of 5 centimeters (2 inches). MAHLI can acquire images of even higher resolution and can be positioned as close as 2.5 centimeters (about 1 inch); however, as this is the first checkout of the robotic arm, it was decided not to attempt to place the MAHLI at its closest focus distance during this test. The image shows that the calibration target has a coating of Martian dust on it. This is unsurprising - the target was facing directly toward the plume of dust stirred up by the sky crane's descent engines during the final phase of the 6 August 2012 landing. The penny is a nod to geologists' tradition of placing a coin or other object of known scale as a size reference in close-up photographs of rocks, and it gives the public a familiar object for perceiving size easily when it will be viewed by MAHLI on Mars. The specific coin, provided by MAHLI's principal investigator, Ken Edgett, is a 1909 "VDB" penny. That was the first year Lincoln pennies were minted and the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The VDB refers to the initials of the coin's designer, Victor D. Brenner, which are on the reverse side. Brenner based the coin's low-relief portrait of Lincoln on a photograph taken Feb. 9, 1864, by Anthony Berger in the Washington, D.C. studio of Mathew Brady. The calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument also includes a "Joe the Martian" character, color references, a metric bar graphic, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration. The MAHLI adjustable-focus, color camera at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm can be used for taking extreme close-ups of rocks and soil on Mars, as well as images from greater distances. The Joe the Martian character appeared regularly in a children's science periodical, "Red Planet Connection," when Edgett directed the Mars outreach program at Arizona State University, Tempe, in the 1990s. Joe was created earlier, as part of Edgett's schoolwork when he was 9 years old and NASA's Mars Viking missions, launched in 1975, were inspiring him to dream of becoming a Mars researcher.
context_page_description: The United States one-cent coin, often called the penny, is a unit of currency equaling one one-hundredth of a United States dollar. It has been the lowest-value physical unit of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent in 1857. The first U.S. cent was produced in 1787, and the cent has been issued primarily as a copper or copper-plated coin throughout its history. Its obverse has featured the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, the centennial of his birth. From 1959 to 2008, the reverse featured the Lincoln Memorial. Four different reverse designs in 2009 honored Lincoln's 200th birthday and a new, "permanent" reverse – the Union Shield – was introduced in 2010. The coin is 0.75 inches in diameter and 0.0598 inches in thickness. Its weight has varied, depending upon the composition of metals used in its production.
  The U.S. Mint's official name for the coin is "cent" and the U.S. Treasury's official name is "one cent piece". The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, which occupies a similar place in the British system. Pennies is the plural form.
context_section_description: Through mint errors, a number of rare and valuable Lincoln Cents have been produced. Some random errors, such as an off-center strike, slightly increase the value of the coin, and are sought after by niche collectors. However some errors were systemic, and produced a number of coins with exactly the same problem in the same year. These have become recognized varieties that are often extremely valuable and sought after by mainstream collectors.
  The first Doubled Die error occurred during the production of the 1909 VDB. Not identified until the 1970s, it shows the RTY in Liberty and the 190 of the date slightly doubled. This coin is extremely rare in high grades.
  In 1922, no one-cent coins were produced by the Philadelphia Mint. However, three of the four pairs of Denver Mint worn and overly polished dies then produced the Weak D and No D varieties, making them appear as if they had been produced in Philadelphia. These varieties are known as the 1922 plain cents or 1922 no "D" cents. Collectors must be wary of removed mint marks.
  There are a few 1943 cents that were produced in bronze, as opposed to the steel/zinc composition used that year. There are 10 to 12 known to exist. Likewise, a few 1944 cents were produced in steel/zinc.
  In 1955, a hubbing error caused some cents to get struck with an obverse die which showed doubling in all of the obverse devices, producing a prominent doubling of the date, and to a less noticeable degree, the rest of the obverse. This is known as the 1955 doubled die cent. A similar die error occurred in 1969 on dies used at the San Francisco Mint. While the 1955 doubled die cent is well-known and widely collected, the 1969-S doubled die is far rarer, with an uncirculated specimen selling for as much as $126,500 in a 2008 Heritage auction. The same mechanism produced 1972, 1983, 1984, and 1995 Doubled die cents. Doubled Dies are known for practically every date in the Lincoln cent series, but most are minor, and less impressive compared to the 1955 and the other Doubled Die varieties mentioned here.
  In 1990, 3,055 proof cents were struck at the San Francisco Mint without the "S" mint mark, making them appear as if they had been struck at the Philadelphia Mint. However, as no proof cents were struck in Philadelphia that year, they are easily distinguishable as errors, and highly valuable.
  The reverse of some Lincoln cents minted in 1992 at the Philadelphia and Denver mints and some of those minted in 1998 and 1999 at the San Francisco mint feature a smaller-than-normal gap between the first two letters of AMERICA. These coins, known as the Close AM variety are valued at $20,000 and $5,000 for the 1992 specimens in gem uncirculated condition and $3,000 and $1,000 for the San Francisco specimens in gem proof condition.
  The reverse of some Lincoln cents minted in 1998, 1999, and 2000 in Philadelphia feature a larger-than-normal gap between the first two letters of AMERICA. These coins, known as the Wide AM variety are valued at $10, $500, and $5, respectively, in gem uncirculated condition. These reverse die errors are technically "mule" errors, as the reverse error dies were the same as normal proof coins of the same date.
caption: 1909 VDB "US Lincoln Penny" – on the planet Mars – part of a calibration target on the Curiosity Rover (September 10, 2012) (3-D version) (also, image on October 2, 2013 – after 411 days on Mars)
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