a DDO DIME 1981 P. Can anyone help me telling what

[excoin]

to think of the rimply surface of this dime (obverse as wel as reverse).
As far as I know the mintmark P is not known on a 1981 dime. Is it repunched?
As wel as the date? Is there a 0 under the 1? I got this coin with several other American
coins of a friend yesterday.
Maybe someone can give me his or her opinion about this strange coin. Thanks a lot! Eva.

[Earle42]

This coin was struck when the die making the dimes was very old and used. Thus the ripples.

P is not known on a 1981 dime

Click here:1981 P dime

Is there a 0 under the 1?

The late die state means our eyes can see all sorts of things in the ripples that are not there. It would be impossible for another number to be under the 1. Nothing in the minting process could do this.

You have a spender...keep looking :)

[Daniel]

Please don't jump to conclusions on your coins and think there's letters and numbers where they can't be or that don't look like they're supposed to.
Your coin has bad die deterioration. I highly recommend looking for well known doubled dies and repunched mint marks and not for strange things on coins, until you get the hang of the mint error and variety look and what a die can actually do to a coin.
Error-ref.com will help you a lot.

[DSCoins]

Please don't jump to conclusions on your coins and think there's letters and numbers where they can't be or that don't look like they're supposed to.
Your coin has bad die deterioration. I highly recommend looking for well known doubled dies and repunched mint marks and not for strange things on coins, until you get the hang of the mint error and variety look and what a die can actually do to a coin.
Error-ref.com will help you a lot.

I agree with Daniel 100%.
One thing you can do to help you when you are searching coins is to go to the PCGS Price Guide https://www.pcgs.com/prices/Coin. It will show you all the errors/varieties that are worth looking for. To tell if the year of that coin has any varieties or errors look for + sign next to the year. If it does you can click on the + and it will show the error or variety. Next click on the coin number (next to the listing) and it will bring up photograph of the coin, you will be able to use your curser to look at a area on the coin closer. This will A: Help you to identify the error or variety easier and B: Show which varieties or errors are worth looking for. Along with learning how the mint process works you will learn what can and can not happen at the mint.
One last thing,

As far as I know the mintmark P is not known on a 1981 dime.

as for the P mint mark, yes it is suppose to there on the 1981 dime. Again you can use the PCGS coin price guide here https://www.pcgs.com/prices/detail/roos ... s-61-70/ms to see it.

DScoins

[Earle42]

@DScoins
While the link you posted IS helpful, and you cannot beat the overall quality of coin photos PCGS posts, the listings they have are not complete. This is probably b/c they have not had all the known varieties submitted for slabbing. Also, they fall short on details on specific errors as well as not having closeups of the affected areas for each. Only if you know what to look for are you going to find those affected areas on the PCGS site.

For example, look at the 1970 S DDO Lincoln cent. PCGS has three of these listed with no reference to which on of the 1970 S LCM DDOs they have slabbed. you cannot use the site to find the differences from one to the other.

Compare to here:
1970 S DDO Varieties by Attribution
Where you find closeup pictures of the actual doubled elements on each of the 14 recorded/documented 1970 S DDOs. You can not only find out which DDOs (etc.) there are for each date and coin, but you then can narrow it down to which DDO (etc. you have) with closeups of the doubling (etc.).

The varietyvista.com home page allows a person to choose which series and then narrow in on what they want to see close up.

However, unlike PCGS, varietyvista.com only has post Barber coinage.

One other thing...
From posting on forums daily (or very close) for 11 years, I have found even the most hardcore PCGS enthusiasts will say PCGS variety attribution is very lacking. Read the links in my signature to see the volume of PCGS rookie-level errors - and all linked to on their PCGS website - with No FG attributions of Kennedy Halves. Either the company actually is very inept compared to their claims, or their claims of using three graders (and they even clam each grader is assigned according to their specialty area) cannot be true. There is no way three experts could make the same mistake on all of the coins linked to in that essay.

[DSCoins]

@Earle42
Please understand that this in no way is posted as a argument nor to say you are wrong. It is just to show why I feel that the PCGS price guide in my opinion should be used by new comers.
The problem here as I see it, is that the coins listed on the PCGS are the coins they have slabbed. Yes Variety Vista has good photos but they also do not list all the varieties that have a FS number plus a lot that do not. The same can be said for copper coins. Copper coins does list a lot more type of variety/error coin. Here is where you run into trouble with copper coins, they list a lot of very minor varieties that are not worth a lot, plus they are not listed on either PCGSs or NGCs guides of coin they recognize. Personally I feel that those just getting started should start off with recognized varieties until they understand what can and can not happen to coins in the Mint. This is only my opinion and fully understand that everyone has their opinion on how or where to compare their coins to. Don't get me wrong, someone can find a discovery coin. Along those lines, it may be better to craw before you leap.

JMO
DScoins

[Daniel]

I am kinda in DScoins corner on this one since new comers need to understand what a doubled die looks like and how it happens using known examples. It makes no sense when someone new or uneducated in the hobby is trying to ID an unknown or obscure doubled die, IF it's even a doubled die. It would be better to have them study the doubled die classes and images of MD and obvious and well known doubled dies so they can see circulated examples and multiple images of the same doubled die. You can't always do that with lesser studied doubled dies.

[Earle42]

@DScoins and Daniel,
What you both say makes an awful lot of sense.

I tend to always enjoy researching to the nth degree anything I do. I was making the mistake of putting my own mindset onto newbies. I have a large amount of free time on my hands so for me to spend a couple hours tracking a variety down is common. I keep forgetting not everyone can afford this kind of time [they have real lives! :) ] so obscure varieties would be a problem.

[Daniel]

@DScoins and Daniel,
What you both say makes an awful lot of sense.

I tend to always enjoy researching to the nth degree anything I do. I was making the mistake of putting my own mindset onto newbies. I have a large amount of free time on my hands so for me to spend a couple hours tracking a variety down is common. I keep forgetting not everyone can afford this kind of time [they have real lives! :) ] so obscure varieties would be a problem.

And they're also not as "learned" and well researched as you are, these newbies jump right into DISCOVERY and GRADING and don't know what a variety or mint error actually is.

[excoin]

Firstly I am so thankful for all your comments en advice. Of course I encounter many problems because of the professional language that is common
on sites suggested by you. There is no such numismatic-language in my country. Because of the low population of people and the low mintage of our native coins
one can hardly speak of a serious numismatic world. This means too, that we lack of a trusty translation of the professional language that is frequented by you guys,
and that is of such importance.
At the moment I am sure that I miss more than half of what I should understand, but slowly things start to get shape, but I have a long way to go. I don't know why
american coins attract me. Maybe itis the granditude and the massiveness of the Dollar and the Cent, that became is an archetypical force in everyman's mind, ha ha.
Ofcourse the fact that it is rather difficult to obtain American valuta makes the Dutch Collector more of a Don Quichote. The only positive thing I can think of, is that
the coins that made it to Holland (for example as the change in the pockets of the Dutch who went to your country for a holiday) become handfuls of unused change,
sometimes appear to me as frozen treasures of decades ago. But I start to drift. I want to say that I understand what you mean, but it will take me lots of time
and studying. But I am still here. And I won't back down, to speak from Mister T. Petty! I hope till soon!