That's really cool, My guess is this somehow happened to a bunch of the blanks before they were minted. Edited: for those that need a summary, someone found a bunch of dollars with edge cuts in them that were there before the edge lettering was applied.
Reeds on dollar The question is HOW? Reeding on modern coins is made by the collar die during striking. To my knowledge it has been about 180 years since reeding was applied in a separate step. A reeded collar for dollar coins has not been used since 1999 (last year of the SBA). Or has it? It is conceivable that somehow a reeded collar was somehow set in a coin press before this coin was struck - and then later run through the edge lettering machine - but it defies logic that no other examples have been reported. (You know that more than one coin was struck when this one was struck.) And suppose that the press operator caught the mistake (i.e., the use of a reeded collar. He would have dumped the hopper with any coins minted in error with a reeded edge. This is an interesting case. It will be interesting to learn the outcome.
My thinking is that those do not look like typical reeds which is why I was thinking it happened in the creation of the blanks. Maybe the tool used to cut the blanks was damaged, who knows.
Let's suppose the "reeding" was created during blanking. Wouldn't the "reeding" have been crushed when the blank went through the upset mill? And wouldn't the "reeding" have been completely (or at least almost completely) crushed when the coin was struck using a smooth collar?
I have not Idea, I don't know if the pressure created by these processes is enough to smooth or not, is it possible that the upset mill had issues that created this or is it possible that the collar used for the lettering was damaged somehow?
I couldn't tell from those pics if the reeding was under the lettering or not. But even if the reeding was done pre lettering, because the lettering is incuse, it would obliterate any underlying reeding in the process. If the reeding is original it would be on the relief around the lettering, not imbedded in it. A simple job for even a child with a band saw blade. Guy~
Crusty It couldn't have been done that way. The reeding is known as the 'third die' because the reeding is added at the time that the coins are struck. The casue of this? We'll probably never know.
The reeding does not look like normal reeding though, they don't look consistent that was why I was thinking it was something else. Is it possible something in the half dollar process got mixed up with these? That is the only other coin other than the quarter that is close to this size.
Another "Night at the Mint"? I agree with Crusty that the reeding doesn't look die made. I guess the lettering process could have moved the reeding around, but I suspect ( being somewhat paranoid) that mint employees, intentionally or unintentionally, were involved. IMO. Jim
I think I read somewhere that the lettering machine was made up of multiple segments. I wonder if there was a flaw there, perhaps the segments became seperated. As skeptical as I am, I hope it is a legitimate error. These kind of things keep the hobby interesting. Guy~
You're thinking of the segmented collar for Proof Presidential Dollars. Proof Presidential Dollars are struck in a segmented collar (3 segments that open after striking to allow the coin to eject). The edge lettering die for Business Strike Presidential Dollars is a continuous bar - not segmented.
Correction, he found ONE coin like that. If he had found a bunch of identical pieces then I would be more inclinded to accept it as a mint error. Second, note the uneven spacing of the "reeds". This is not something done in a collar. Could it be from a damaged blanking punch? Three problems. Damaged all the way around the punch? Not likely. Two a damaged punch would leave marks on the edge of the hole in the sheet, not the blank. And three if the blank did show the damage it would be pretty well wiped out by the upsetting machine and the smooth collar when the coin was struck. (I have a couple of Conder tokens that have lettered edge that were struck in a plain smooth collar and it does a pretty good job of crushing the edge flat. You can only see faint traces of the lettering now. Can't be a half dollar blank, the blanks aren't reeded, the blank would be too big, and the composition would be wrong. No this is just a coin that has somehow gotten damaged or "played with" between the time it was struck and when it got to the edge lettering machine. I would still classify it as post mint damage, but damage that occured while it was still inside the mint.
Sorry, I guess I miss read the original story and thought out of x rolls he found one roll that looked like that.
