A broadstrike is an uncollared strike... also sometimes called a "splash" strike. Some coins are designed and meant to be done that way... others occur that way only by accident. I'm not completely sure about the "partial forced in collar" part. But I'll take an educated guess based on some experiences at the press. If the collar is a little too big for the die and the strike is a little heavier than it needs to be, metal can be forced into the narrow space between the lower die and the collar on one side... especially if the dies are not perfectly aligned. That flowing metal can actually lift the collar if it's not firmly bolted down and push it off the lower die, usually at an angle. The resulting strike then shows "broadstruck" on one side where the metal flowed out, and partly collared on the other where the collar was just hanging on. This is a bad situation. If the press operator does not catch it quick, then in the next one or two strikes the angled collar can jam and either the collar could be broken or the dies clash or both. In the case of such a disaster, the press is stopped of course, and the error coins usually pulled out along with the trashed dies. But the very first coin that took place right as the collar was first coming loose may find its way down the struck chute and get mixed into the general press run. Since quota is the main thing most of the time, the press operator will be squatting bricks about getting his press running again, hoping he didn't damage his die fixtures, and probably not terribly worried about searching for that last coin that slipped through with a funky rim.
Hi Tom, I much appreciate your reply. If you don't mind could you tell me more about "spalsh: strike and why some coins are meant to be this way..you have my attention. Thanks, Jerry You wrote: A broadstrike is an uncollared strike... also sometimes called a "splash" strike. Some coins are designed and meant to be done that way... others occur that way only by accident.
These are sometimes also called "forced broadstrikes". Sometimes a planchet is surrounded by a partially deployed collar. As the planchet expands during the strike, it grazes the top of the collar and simultaneously forces it down. If the collar is stiff, it resists being depressed and leaves a beveled edge on the broadstrike coin, rather than the typical "stepped" edge of a conventional partial collar error.
I have a coin for sale on ebay that I am not sure what happened. It has a beveled edge. hope it's ok to put a link in here, not self promoting, i just want to list it correctly. I can edit the title of the auction The reason doesn't matter. Links to a person's own auction may only be posted in the Auction Forum, subject to that forum's special rules and limitations.
I'll post the link, I believe that is allowed. I would like to learn what might have happened to cause it. Deleted - Sorry - lesson learned. That's what I get fot thinking Thanks
This is not an error at all. It is a "lucky token" cent (encased cent). It used to reside within a ring of metal (often aluminum) with an advertising slogan or some other message on it. As the ring is struck, it distorts the cent.
Then why is there a previous auction with the exact same date and attributes? Click on the link in the auction.
Maybe the company(s) that made these as a marketing gimmick made a lot of them. I would imagine that a company could make thousands of these "Lucky Coins" pretty cheaply using pennies. How many of us would know anything about a marketing gimmick dating back to the 50's or earlier. (Really not trying to make any of you feel old.) Hard for me to remember the things I saw in the 60's and 70's. Really not a bad idea even for a current ploy. Most marketing give-aways get tossed. No one like throwing money away so you keep it around. You also keep your name around in the process. Cool idea.
Hi Jerry: Collaring is a relatively recent coining technique. Before collaring all coins were broadstruck. The problem with them is that since there is no clearly defined edge, they are prone to being clipped. Also, bankers hate them because they don't stack nicely. So in response to the need for both security (anti-clipping) and ease of counting, collaring was developed. There is a quite involved section in Denis Cooper's THE ART AND CRAFT OF COINMAKING (which is an EXCELLENT tome by the way) about all the various means and strategems of making and deploying collars. The earliest known attempt to strike a coin in a collar occurred in Paris about 1555, but the difficulties of extraction and feeding caused it to be very slow and unsatisfactory. Almost all coins before about 1750 or so are broadstruck. Collaring is an added complexity... broadstriking is much simpler. For collaring the dies much be "necked" down to just fit into the collar (or the collar made to just fit over the dies). The necking of the die causes the edges to be very subject to damage... especially by clashes. The blank must be very carefully cut to just drop within the collar. When the coin is struck it is forcefully wedged into the collar and must therefore be forcefully ejected. By contrast, dies for broadstriking are engraved directly on a "broad" die face without necking. Therefore they are much stronger as they have a lot of metal supporting the die face around the edge. Also... that broad face will absorb the force of an inadvertant clash without damaging the engraved portion of the die. Finally... they can be used with almost any blank since there is no particular exact size that it must be. The drawback to broadstriking is that the blanks must be centered by eye, so offcentered strikes become the norm and well-centered strikes demand a premium. I've attached some photos. One shows my very first set of dies, etched on hexagonal steel die-blanks. Another shows a broadstruck faux French colonial I made, where the edge of the coin is defined by a series of shallow 'dentilations'. The copper blank was considerably smaller than the rim and you can see the bulbous effect at the edges as the metal flowed outward. The third photo is of a silver broadstruck coin without any attempt to define the edge. The silver simply flowed outward in an uneven fashion, even cracking somewhat at the very edge. So the idea is to make an old looking fantasy coin by doing it the way it was done in the old days. Those old coins have a certail look and feel because of the techniques used to make them. If you use those techniques, you can naturally attain that feel and appearance. Have fun!
