RPMLet’s talk about RPM’s
So in this post, I want to talk a little about repunched mint marks.
I am going to start with a 1961-D repunched mint mark. They were pretty common for this year as well as in 1959-D, 1960-D (small and large date versions) and 1961.
In this first photo, it typically looks like a “split serif” RPM.
You are probably asking, what IS a split serif repunched mint mark. A split serif repunched mint mark is where there is slight evidence of one mint mark over the top of another but the only evidence is a “split” on the upper, lower or both serifs. Serifs – for the “D” mint mark are located at the very top and the very bottom of the vertical bar of the mint mark.
Located below is the location of the split serif. It doesn’t look that dramatic until you look a bit closer at this photo.
Notice any additional hints?
It can be quite difficult to know what “RPM number” is, unless you can match up some things.
How attributors – the people who document varieties like this repunched mint mark, offer a photo of the variety coin like the one above. Each of these mintmarks are struck by hand and each one is more than likely in a slightly different location.
Have a look at this link to see what I mean about the mint marks being in different locations:
http://varietyvista.com/02b%20LC%20RPMs%20Vol%202/RPMs%201961D%20(1-39).htm
Attributors can take a known good photo of a variety like the one above and take the photo of a coin which is a possible match and create an overlay. they use the date and the mint mark location and try to line that up. If they can successfully line it all up, its a match and they know what RPM number or listing it it.
OK, so lets take a closer look at the photo below. It LOOK like there might be something in the middle of the mint mark.
Its actually TWO things. One looks like a vertical line and the other looks like a blob or some sort of debris?
This repunched mint mark is a little complicated but a closer view of the mint mark below offers a little more information or evidence.
What we have here is a 1961-D RPM. You can see the lower split serif pretty easily. The vertical bar (not horizontal)
in the photo below was one of the fails or errors of the mint worker trying to punch a good mint mark into a working die.
From this photo below, here is a summary of what probably happened.
- The mint worker has a mint mark punch in one hand and a mallet in the other.
- With a high powered visor in, he positioned the mint mark punch on the working die where he wanted to add the mint mark
- He takes the mallet and hits the mint mark punch, but it was not hard enough for the mint mark punch to transfer the entire mint mark into the working die. The only thing that shows on the working die is that vertical line.
- Noticing his error, he aligns the punch again, slightly to the left and gives the mint mark punch a healthy hit with the hammer.
- For good measure, he hits the mint mark punch with the hammer one more time.
How do we know this?
Lets’s break it down a little further.
The vertical line itself, was one attempt at adding the mint mark.
The next two attempts were close to each other. Split serifs mean that there are at least two mint mark punch attempts real close to each other.
So, this RPM is a vertical bar, and a split serif that shows one line in the split serif which indicates two mint mark punches real close to one another.
There are additional clues something is going on with this mint mark. The blue arrows to the left side show a very slight separation between the second and third punching.
There is a piece of copper fragment that either landed in the mint mark or it was attached to the mint mark during the striking of this coin. Its not used as a marker to ID the variety.
The blue arrows to the top and right side although not very strong in the photo are areas where the second and third punching were just a tad off.
So this RPM is probably the 1961-D RPM number 022. People also call these 1961 D/D/D RPM.
Here is the link, do you think its a match?
http://varietyvista.com/02b%20LC%20RPMs%20Vol%202/1961DRPM022.htm
Want some more information about Repunched mint marks? Have a look at this post !
Or this one !
Find additional posts in our Educational series :
https://minterrors.org/index.php/category/educational-series/
