West Virginia 1972 Penny and Other Finds

[agenthamburg]

Hello all,

I have a couple of backlogged finds that I thought people might find interesting. I typically just keep any older penny (pre 1980) that looks surprisingly shiny. Then I photograph them when I get a chance. Below are some photographs of the following (image filenames have the penny labels):

1) 1956 penny with missing letters. These are likely missing due to post mint damage, but they just look so clean!
2) 1972 penny with West Virginia state imprinted on it. I can't find it anywhere online but it looks like a novelty coin that a company might stamp.
3) 1975 penny with extra metal around the "O" in "ONE"
4) 1984 penny with letters hitting rim.
5) 1993 penny with what looks like a crack.

Let me know what you think!

[agenthamburg]

Just found this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1978-P-LINCOLN ... 7675.l2557

I also just noticed that in the 1984 Penny above, it looks like Lincoln has teeth!

[PALH1]

nice pics

[PetesPockets55]

Welcome and thank you for the nice images and including an image of the obverse and reverse.
The 1956 appears to be an error coin. I believe it was a defective planchet, specifically a large lamination before the strike. A lamination occurs when part of the metal falls off the coin because of defective mixing of the metals to produce the alloy and can happen before or after being struck by the dies.
Most of the time when there is a lamination error, it occurs after the strike. There would be full details because the metal is present at the time of the strike to fill all the devices of the die.
When a large lamination falls out prior to the strike, there is not enough metal to fill all areas of the die. I believe this is what happened with your coin and that is why the obverse around LIBERTY is weak and missing details. The missing metal on the reverse, from the lamination, is affecting the details on the obverse.

The 1984 is a nice looking coin with lots of detail.