I've got a dime with a strange strike-over on the front, like half of it was re-stamped when it was still hot or something...??? I know very little about the minting process, so I'm just guessing here... it could also be someone messing around with some stamping equipment, but I thought I'd ask here and see if anyone has seen one of these before... thanks
Welcome, Vance. Sorry, I'd just be guessing if I tried to tell you anything about your dime. If you can post an attachment that has a couple of good pictures of it, someone might be able to help.
ok, here's a pic taken with a very cheap digital camera... as you can see, the obverse has been struck and the image on the reverse can be seen thru it... the reverse view appears normal. Whatever struck it had no tooling marks of any kind that I can see... what you're seeing is the inboard, or under side of the reverse image. Thanks for any input.
here's a view of the edge of the dime in the area of the strike... the strike had the effect of raising the outer ridge of the coin in that area, making the sandwich appear thicker that it really is... you can see where the thickness gradually goes back to normal as it leaves the strike area... seems impossible that it could have left the mint this way, so I'm assuming it was altered after it got into circulation..???
Vance, There is nothing unusual about the other side, is there? I can see that the coin is slightly out of round.
reverse appears identical to any other dime as far as I can tell... It does appear to be out of round now that you mention it, the top of the LIBERTY letters appear to be closer to the edge than normal... but the edge of the coin in that area looks fine.
Vance, The best I can do is offer an opinion on this one. It looks like another dime was cut out in the curved shape you see in the picture. Then it was hammered into the whole-intact dime, resulting in an incuse-mirror image of the cut out piece. I believe this is most likely an alteration, but I could very well be wrong. There are different kinds of brockage strikes that look very similar to this. If you are interested in having it looked at by an expert, CONECA has a couple of certifiers that will examine it for a small fee. Some others may come by and offer their opinions here, but that's about the best I can do. Very interesting coin BTW, thanks for sharing it with us.
I believe the image seen in the stamped area is that of the underside of the reverse of the coin, and not a stamping from another dime... Aside from the fact that the image is positionally correct with respect to the reverse image, it couldn't be from another dime for two reasons: 1. The edge of the dime in the area of the strike would not be raised if it were stamped by another dime. 2. It would not be possible to create this type of mirror image with another dime because the torch would be pointing toward the center of the coin in that scenario, which it is not... put 2 dimes together and you'll see what I mean... Thanks for your input...
Vance, On point #2, I know that a whole dime would not make that image, that's why I suggested that it could have been made from a cut out piece. In other words, a coin that had been cut in half on a curved angle. Good luck.
I understand now, it certainly is a possibility... I wish I were a fly on the wall when this coin got altered... Thanks for your input.
Mule? I always called 'em mules, the last coin rides in on the die and hammers in to the next blank in line.
That's not what Jody was referring to though. His opinion - and I agree with it - is that the coin in question was altered by an individual after it had left the mint.
