I haven't had a problem finding nice well struck D mint coins. the S is tough except I found some nice 46s coins but the 40s wins worst prize or toughest to find nice from what I've seen.
You post some really interesting items Matt. Thanks, I know many enjoy it. It's the weakest struck I have seen as well. Pretty cool. Years ago I used to hear the term "flat struck", used a lot. Maybe just me but I don't hear that term much anymore. Is that about the same as weakly struck?
Yeah, means the same thing. That's the thing about terminology, it changes as the people change. The people who used to use flat struck likely still use it, you just don't hear from them or see their comments as much anymore. Today you see different people's comments and they use weakly struck. 'Bout all there is to it.
Uhhhhhh - actually I was thinking more along the lines of - the younger generations is, shall we say, more vociferous
We get better with age. Can't say that about all of our coins. "vociferous" I'll have to look that one up.
I agree, I collected these in the 80's, [yes, Like Doug I am old, just not THAT old.} And these weak strikes were encountered, jut not that often.
I wanted to dig this old thread up and see if we can get some new weak strike action. Not nearly as bad as the OP weak strike, but here is mine:
Maybe the reason they were having this issue at SF at the time were improperly annealed planchets. Just throwing that out there as a possibility. No data to back it up.
Possible, but a low strike pressure setting on the press may be more likely. In cases where documentation does exist, that is the most common reason, especially at the branch mints. They dialed down the pressure a bit in order to make the dies last longer.
Understand. Just don't know how they would let it go for years. Seems they would be able to correct a pressure issue. I know the New Orleans mint had annealing issues with the Morgan planchets.
You know that you've become a coin geek when you marvel over a weak struck coin. I must say that I really liked the learning from this thread. Good stuff!