Help me with a weird looking Half

Thanks for that shot. It makes a huge difference on the crispness of the reeding. Otherwise, it could be simply a rolled coin which shows up periodically. The reeding on those often remains but is flattened like my quarter. Less shrinkage would retain more reeding, but not the crisp reeding that photo shows.

Congratulations to all those who managed to see that from the previous photos. I certainly didn't.

Also, could the appearance of a thicker planchet be caused by the reduced bevel of a Proof planchet or is that limited to the cents? Of course, that still doesn't explain the reduced weight as well as a foreign planchet.

 

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Doug,

Good point. I hadn't taken that into consideration. I was thinking lighter planchet yet it still filled the striking chamber.

I am going to send it into NGC for Heath next week so we should have an answer

 

It appears to be between 29 mm and 30 mm (29.8 mm is my best estimate from the photos) where a half should be 30.6 mm. It seems proportional to the reduced weight so the metal content is likely the same or very close. I also think they are possibly the same thickness with less rounding or bevel.

I'm wondering what other foreign coins were minted there in 1974 with a reeded edge.

I recalculated after measuring the difference at 5/75 smaller or 1/25 smaller to 29.376 mm which is far closer to the 29.15 I calculated using 0.0154 gm/sq-mm assuming the same thickness and material planchet as the standard clad half.

 

Standard is 11.34 grams and your 1.03 grams light ~10% light.
~29.3 mm versed standard of 30.6 mm or about 4% smaller diameter.

We need a minting person to explain when the reeding was done in the 70s. In the distant past, it was applied with a collar during the pressing. Modern dollars have edge inscriptions done separately with a roller. The sharpness of the reeding makes me think it's a separate process since an undersized collar isn't likely to even fit standard dies.

I'm coming around to the ideas of GDJMSP, it just took me longer. Oh, you might consider a stop at NCS to remove the fingerprint before slabbing.

 

I'm under the assumption that the blank was not reeded before it was struck. The reeding was added in the striking process just like any other Kennedy half dollar.

 

The crispness of the reeding makes me think it was either:

a. Struck with an undersized collar on a wrong planchet. (Unlikely)
b. Struck on a wrong planchet and then reeded AFTER striking
c. A high quality machining experiment where they trimmed the coin and added new reeding.
d. A Chinese counterfeit. Who knows why they would do that, but they counterfeit everything else.

The most likely way for it to actually be a mint error that I can think of is processing a foreign coin (proper planchet and collar) with the wrong dies. Otherwise it seems that two errors processing the same coin would be required.

 

That's what I would think if that was the case.

How much does the coin weigh?

If it was struck on a wrong planchet, wouldn't it be thinner?

 

10.31 grams. It is thicker than a normal half but the circumference is smaller

 

I'm still not convinced it's actually thicker rather than appearing thicker like the proof cents.

This is a closeup showing a typical bevel. I don't see the bevel on your photo.

 

The latest picture seems to show the reeding as being sharp and not flattened. That would eliminate a beaten edge.

A to when the reeding is applied, since 1794 the reeding has always been created by the collar during striking. (Surprise the early reeded edges were NOT applied by the Castaining machine.) This causes a problem because the smaller diameter means that if the planchet was smaller in diameter it could not have created the reeding during the strike. (Striking it in a smaller diameter collar is not an option because the dies would not have fit inside the collar. So they would smash into the collar rather than the planchet.)

As I mentioned earlier a way to do it would be to strike the coin on an already struck smaller reeded edge coin. Such as on an already struck foreign coin. A problem I see with this idea is that it appears to made of the same coppernickel clad composition as our coins are. The only country I can think of off the top of my head that was doing that back then was Panama, and we were striking their coins, but they were the same size and weight as our coins. Dutchman, when you get the coin give it a good examination and see if you can find any trace of an undertype.

 

With the information Condor posted along with the lack of beveling, I have to say my suspicion is that it is likely:

C. A well executed machine tool coin which was trimmed and reeded again after trimming or reeds were deepened and then trimmed.

The reason I doubt the strike on an already reeded smaller coin is the lack of overlap at the edges of the coin I would expect from the striking of an undersized coin which is not secured tightly by a collar, though it could explain the lack of beveling on the edge and the reeding appearing to extend into the surfaces of the coin.

But having the experts look at it seems well worth the effort anyways.

 

C'mon now, you really need to get yourself a scale... even if it's one of those 19.95 ebay ones!:whistle:

 

I did get one. If you keep reading the thread it said that and it also said the half actually weighed 10.31 grams. :kewl:

 

See, post number 25 on page 2.:thumb:

 

I see it. Sorry about that. I jumped ahead of myself. Good job getting the scale :thumb:

(LOL... I was thinking about blaming my goof on Marshall after he posted that distracting quarter, but I couldn't, because he didn't hijack the thread until later)

 

LOL,
I even made th joke that I guess I was far enough into collecting now that I needed the scale.

 

I'm sorry you feel my musings and speculation constitutes hijacking the thread. I feel like I've learned a lot from the process of trying to figure out how this coin could get to it's present condition.

 

He was joking Marshal. I think he was talking about posting pictures of your coin as hijaking. Nobody thinks you hijacked this one. I appreciate your input on my half.

 

Marshall - I was joking. No offense intended.

 

Thanks for the post. I have been known to take over threads on other forums and I really didn't want to do it here. I love learning about the process and this coin was all about the coining process. I guess we wait for the TPG analysis now.