Found something pretty awesome! Please help me out.

From the photos, it appears that your coin was acid treated. Acid will tend to eat into the coins surface (making it thin) and reduce the diameter while leaving the details relatively clear. The details will still have a somewhat fuzzy appearance. Sorry for the bad news. Acid treated coins have plagued the error hobby for years. Most people think they have a coin struck on a foreign planchet.

 

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I agree with Zimmy. Acid treated PMD. In an acid solution , all 3 measurements are affected, diameter, thickness, and weight, and usually inthe same proportions. The details stay because this coin has a homogeneous composition rather than a clad, so the higher areas AND the lower areas are reduced somewhat equally. Not entirely equal, because striking pressure does change the resistancy to areas to the acid.

Jim

 

Just my 2 cents... The color and surface texture resemble an acid treated coin.

 

the tissue test would be an easy and quick way to perhaps help with the diagnosis.

 

Booo! Why can't we have any nice things?

 

It took 21 posts for you folks to figure this out?

 

I'm adding this to the mix:

http://205.243.100.155/photos/ShrunkenCoins1.PDF

 

maybe a dealer near you has one of those fancy doohickey "gun" things that will tell you what is in the thing(metals) it is "shooting" using lasers or something? I've seen them in action, and it could be a final word on this.

 

Or we could all get our favorite brand of popcorn, sit back & enjoy the show! This thing got it's first bid less than a minute after posting. Ive already made $2 profit on something that put me out $0.05!
Gotta love eBay!! And in the details portion I was adament about my uncertainty of the coin.

One side note though, I read the shrunken coin link and I really dont think this is the case. Weight is half, width is half, but the diameter is almost the exact same. The picture comparison I posted is a bit decieving. I think the normal nickel is just a smidge larger but nothing significant at all.

And if anybody wants to see it for yourself, you could be just 5 short days away from owning it! hehe
Thank everyone very very much for the insight!

~Kyle

 

I didn't think it was a shrunken coin, either. It was just something that others could learn from. Good luck on the auction. Hope it's not an acid-eaten coin or you could get bad feedback.

 

Boooooo

 

What is the tissue test?

 

Lay a tissue over a coin, if the coin silhouette is darker, then it's silver. Or maybe the opposite. Go ahead and try it! I dare you!

 

I hope you're disclaimer helps you sleep better about selling someone a coin these experts know is an acid treated coin worth 5 cents. I really wish I could send the winning bidder a link to this forum discussion.

 

You've never tried this?? Take a clad quarter and a silver quarter side by side. Lay a tissue over both. The silver one will show up as bright white through the tissue. The clad will be dark and barely visible through the tissue.

 

A link to the OP's auction: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1963-D-Jefferson-Nickel-WRONG-PLANCHET-Error-Possible-Dime-Planchet-/180897601193?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2a1e5656a9

He does offer returns...

 

Wow! What are you talking about? These experts are very good at analyzing coins but they haven't even seen the coin in person. I took it yesterday to two different places and one them actually specializes in Jefferson Nickels. He said his guess was that it's a magicians coin. The other guy told me something like the coin was lazer lathed which I don't even know what that means. Bur my point is every opinion I've gotten have been from a reputable source and every one has been different. Obviously the coin has a different look when it's physically in your hand or under a scope. My disclaimer is 100% accurate.

 

To the OPs defense he has listed the coin as being found in a roll two days ago and also makes mention that he is not an error expert. I dont see anything wrong with that, common sense should tell you that this coin is a gamble at best and i guarantee this coin does not fetch a huge premium.

 

Has anyone on here ever heard of the silver acid test ? these silver test kits are extremely cheap off Ebay and will last for years. It is easy to tell if a coin is silver or not with the acid test. put a tiny amount on something small like say the sharp end of a needle and put it on the outer edge of the coin as to not damage the coin , if it is sterling silver the acid test area will be blood red and 90% silver will be a little less red.

other folks have been guessing about what caused this coin to be this way and as usual my guess is different from the other opinions . It looks like someone has used a metal grinding lathe and removed the outer edge and rim from the op's coin. this would explain why the coin is so much thinner. when the rim is ground away this removes about half of a coins thickness.

EDIT: oops what I wrote does make sense but I just thought about the weight problem. this would probably not remove half of the weight. I'm starting to think this one may be the real thing. If it is a nickle on a dime planchet the planchet managed to be perfectly on center in the dies. the details on this coin looks about right to me where they didn't fill in the die completely . I noticed that some of the letters looks thin like they should when a thin planchet is struck by bigger dies. This is one that I think would need to be examined close up.

 

I agree. I feel that once again we have been "used" by someone who thinks he has found a treasure and then when it is identified as just PMD it gets tossed up on ebay to try and sell it off to another unknowledgeable person with a bunch of hype. "wrong planchet", "90% silver nickel", "if you are well versed with off metal errors then you know the kind of premium these things bring". Says the only test he has done for silver is the ring test. Doesn't say what the results were but that he grinned from ear to ear. (Did he hear silver or sucker?)

On the weasel your way out of responsibility side he does say that HE is not knowledgeable about wrong metal errors, "that a local dealer didn't know what it was" (most dealers are not knowledgeable about errors) "and that he should get it slabbed". And that he is not saying for sure it is 90% silver. He does say that someone said it might be a magicians coin...but that that person didn't really have a clue about it either.

No mention of the correct identification of PMD from soaking in acid. and the auction was posted hours after the cause was finally identified.

Yes we were used, or at least an attempt at being used. I feel he wanted confirmation of a treasure but when he found out it wasn't isn't about to tell them what we said it is.