1925-S Repunched Mintmark RPM-004

Description

Cataloged by VarietyVista with attribution codes UVC-017 and DMR-007, this 1925-S Lincoln Wheat Cent exhibits a repunched S mintmark where the San Francisco Mint\'s hand-applied mintmark punch required at least two impressions to achieve proper placement, leaving evidence of the initial strike visible alongside the final position. Three documented die stages chronicle the die\'s progressive condition: Stage A in early die state showing a die gouge through the W of WE on the obverse with the reverse also in early die state, Stage B with both obverse and reverse at mid-die state, and Stage C in late die state (unconfirmed). The die gouge through the W of WE is present from the earliest documented stage, indicating it was either a die preparation artifact or occurred very early in the die\'s production run, making it a reliable attribution marker across all known die states. The Lincoln Wheat Cent was designed by Victor David Brenner, whose obverse portrait of Abraham Lincoln debuted in 1909 as the first circulating U.S. coin to depict a real historical person. Struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1925, this coin is composed of 95% copper with 5% tin and zinc, weighing 3.11 grams with a diameter of 19.05 mm. The 1925-S had a mintage of approximately 26.4 million pieces. Repunched mintmark varieties from the mid-1920s document the manual process by which each working die received its S mintmark — a small steel letter punch hammered into the die face by hand, an inherently imprecise operation that frequently produced slight positional errors requiring corrective re-punching, creating the doubled or shifted mintmark impressions that variety collectors seek today.

Die Markers

• UVC-017
• DMR-007
• Stage A:
• Die gouge though W of WE – EDS
• Reverse is EDS
• Stage B:
• Obverse and Reverse are MDS
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

External References