I found a Presidential Dollar with a sunken in C on the edge lettering. It is definitely not raised like the many others I have found. Is this a true dropped letter?
Welcome to the neighborhood! It appears to be way too large to match to any font the Mint might use on the Prez dollars. I'm not even sure that it is actually a letter, rather something with a round shape which caused the impression. A dropped element (letter) would have to have it's origin from one of the other letters on the die. It is probably Post-Mint Damage. Chris
almost all of these extra letters that folks are finding and thinking are dropped letters on the edges of the presidental dollars is considered by some experts to be from the ejection process on the edge lettering machine.I am the one that informed some folks of this. one coin get's pushed up against another one. I have hundreds of them.
Didn't they certify a dropped edge letter a couple of years back? I still say they are all contact marks...
yes one was certified by Mr. Potter but I don't understand how he figured that one out since the edge lettering machine has embossed letters and nothing incuse to become clogged with anything. If I'm thinking right he may be saying that a dropped letter came from one of the obv. or rev. letters. If so how did it end up in the edge lettering machine? I trust Mr. Potter because he knows quite a bit about error coins.
Sorry, Tuck, but it just doesn't seem possible! As Rascal said, the edge lettering is performed with different equipment that isn't even near the obverse and reverse dies. The only way this could occur is if it was a "retained dropped element" on the coin that was delivered to, eventually worked its way free and fell into the edge lettering equipment. I still question the size of the font for the "suspected" letter "C". Unless you can provide a photo overlay which shows that it is an exact fit, I don't think so. Chris
A dropped letter or filling would not make it's way to the edge lettering machine. "After the coins are struck, they are placed in huge bins. A machine that functions very much like a vacuum sweeper nozzle sucks the coins up and into the Schuler edge lettering machine, where the coins are fed against an impeller wheel that drives them past the die with the edge lettering spelled out on it." There are just way too many steps in between where the dropped filling would be removed. And by the way, I'm pretty sure rascal and tuck are the same person, just trolling.
Dear Nimismat. I am TTUCK and I am not anyone else or "trolling". I am just "trolling" for answers, and thought I could get some one here.
A dropped letter that showed on the edge would not be created in the edge lettering machine. It would come from the dropped letter being caught between the edge of the planchet and the collar during striking. This strikes me as unlikely for two reasons. Not much clearance between the planchet and collar, and the fact that the dollars are struck on a horizontal striking press which means a fallen letter would have to fall out of the die, land on the vertically oriented collar and not fall off as it moved around and was reloaded with the next planchet (and not have the planchet push the letter off as it was loaded in.)
dropped letter Polk dollar I have a Polk dollar with a dropped "T" on the edge next to the mint mark. Ken Potter certified it and Mike Diamond also authenticated it.
I'm reviving this ancient thread because I wish to retract the thumbs-up I gave the dropped letter on the Polk dollar. I have to drop it back into the "authenticity uncertain" file. It took me awhile to realize that it would have been a simple matter to cut out a plug of metal bearing an isolated letter T from the obverse, to mount that plug, and then drive the plug into the soft copper of the edge. I suspect this is more likely than a dropped letter scenario because it's highly unlikely that a dropped plug of die fill would fall off a coin and then lodge in the recesses of the lettering device. I've now seen four isolated, incuse "dropped elements" on the edge of dollar coins, and that's a few too many for comfort. -- Mike Diamond
