Hello again folks! I'm been gone for a while, but I haven't forgotten you all. I have the 2.5 ounce US Marine silver medal where the capsule it came in won't close completely. It turns out to have a rather large rim fin on the obverse and a smaller one on the reverse. On another forum I visit, it was posted that there are at least 4 others with the same fin. (In the same location) so far. Has anybody seen this here?
Most times not, Fins are usually a one off mis-strike, but I have found that there are at least 20 or so that I know of that have this fin. ALL of them have the fin in the same exact location on the medal as indicated by my annotated image up above. None in other random locations. This tells me that maybe the die pair itself has the issue. I contact one bay seller and he has 5 of these with the fin and a few that does not. Now how many die pairs were produced to strike these medals?
Another reason is an ill fitting collar die and higher than normal strike pressure causes the moving metal to be forced up through the gap between 3rd die and coin edge.
