What do you call this critter?

[tiggerlilly]

Any Idea what this would be?[img][img][/img][img][/img]
from what I can tell, their are 3 fully stamped MM ..This one is a strange one.. I have no idea what the two holes are but there are two more in his head above the ear and a little over.. They don't look like after mint marks to me.. no displacement of the metal that i can tell...[/code]

[coppercoins]

Hate to burst your bubble here, but it looks like some corrosion has taken effect and eaten away at the coin. Bummer.

[tiggerlilly]

I agree that the coin is not in the best of shape.. But I have to respectfully disagree on the theory that corrosion caused the marks .... the intentions are perfectly symmetrical and you can clearly see two identical D's and there may be a third.. My photography still needs some work... but they are there.. [img][/img]
This you would have to see live memorex is not quiet right..

[coppercoins]

Okay...

They quit hand punching mintmarks in 1989, so any chance of an RPM after 1989 is completely nil.

It's also not a doubled die. If the mintmark were doubled as your photo shows, the date would have similar doubling, as would the remainder of the design.

Corrosion can happen under the copper plating, and that can cause the plating to buckle in odd ways. It may not look corroded - it may be shiny throughout...the corrosion would be under the surface.

If it's not corrosion, it could be struck through something that would cause the appearance of doubling in the mintmark area. I'm not sure whether this is the case because I respectfully cannot see exactly what's going on from the photos. I'm only giving the most common reasons for the effect I believe I see.

For a more complete and comprehensive answer I would have to see the coin in person. But one thing I can say for sure. There is damage on a lot of parts of that coin, so I naturally relate oddities on the surface of the coin to the damage. I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time.

[eagames]

They plate the zinc planchet then strike the coin. As it's struck the zinc gets stretched thin near the mintmark. Corrosion gets under the plating in the thin area and grows zinc oxide and raises the area. It looks like a mintmark because the stretched area was shaped that way.

That's why people don't like zincolns, they don't last as well.