That's what I was thinking too. It looks just like all the legit broken planchets I've seen. Of course Mike D might come along and blow us out of the water, but it looks good to me.
That's a clean break from what I can see, I don't see any saw or melt marks - intriguing. How did you obtain both halves?
There aren't any pics on error-ref.com. I haven't seen these before. If the planchet broke after the strike, how is it not PMD? I would love to learn more about these. Was the planchet already defected before striking and then just snapped? Or is it the cleanliness of the break that makes it a mint error? Thanks guys.
Here's what I think happens; The planchets have broken into at least two pieces. The break can occur either before or after the strike. A break after the strike shows sharp, rough edges with a grainy appearance. A break before the strike shows rounded-off edges and metal flow toward the break
Yes, there was a defect in the metal that caused it. Similiar to a lamination. Metal just doesen't break like that without a reason. Cool error, wish you had the other piece rockdude.
It appears to be a genuine broken coin. Additional information can be found here: http://www.coinworld.com/articles/material-failure-often-affects-hard-and-britt Another column, this one specifically devoted to broken planchet and broken coin errors, appears in the March 14, 2011 Coin World. Regrettably, that article was not placed in the public domain, so you'll need a subscription to retrieve it from the CW digital archives.
Thanks Mike. I have a question regarding the nickel that is shown as the first image in that article and is listed as a hard planchet. It appears to have weakness on the bust, and unless I'm missing something, that's all I see to differentiate it from a normal coin. How could one distinguish between a hard planchet and lack of detail from other causes such as a weak strike or filled die? Sorry to hijack the thread somewhat, but since the article addresses several different planchet defects I thought I'd ask.
Thanks for posting this rockdude. I would like to apologize for jumping on the PMD bandwagon. I usually refrain from posting about error types that I know nothing about, but it seemed straightforward that it broke after striking. I just wasn't knowledgable enough to know this was still a legitimate error. Thanks Mike, for the info, and thanks again rockdude. I love learning new things about errors & varieties! Great thread!
You ask a good question. The centralized weakness seen in a hard planchet strike can be very difficult to distinguish from other forms of centralized weakness, such as weak strikes and grease strikes. I lean toward the hard planchet scenario in this case because the peripheral elements and design rim are very well-struck, the weakness on the reverse is confined to Monticello (never slopping over), and there was a rash of identical-appearing errors in this year/mintmark that extends across multiple die pairs.