Please settle an argument. What's going on with this coin?

There is a dark residue on this coin. We are trying to decide what happened. Some say it's a dark deposit that can be removed with acetone. Others claim it is PMD but don't know what hit the coin. Who do you agree with? WHY?

 

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Something was soldered to that coin. The black is burnt flux. You can see the outline of the remaining solder around the burnt flux. That coin was jewelry at some point in its life.

 

There's a raised ridge around part of the feature. In this photo, it looks like coin metal -- but it doesn't really have the look of displaced metal, at least to me.

If I had the coin in hand, I'd certainly try acetone and see what it left.

Oh, hey, I see what looks like a lamination to the left of the feature. That might well be related.

 

You may be on to something -- but if so, they did a terrible job. There shouldn't be a large area of burnt flux under where the solder had been; the solder should have fused to the coin metal.

 

And maybe that is why the loop snapped off leaving the rim of the device. Jim

 

They didn't get the coin hot enough. In in other words, they watched the solder melt and stopped before it really bonded to the coin.

 

"Cold solder joint" is quite possible, but I'm still not convinced. I'll be eager to hear what @Insider says.

 

Acetone, looks like a heavy residue of adhesive from the coin being attached to something

 

It makes me wonder if the coin was mounted to a piece of jewelry or something.

 

I would think that is possible. That would say acetone should be tried at least. Usually no damage is done to a silver coin with it.

 

Zooming in, I think it took damage there and the newly-exposed metal began to corrode. I bet acetone doesn’t do a darn thing to help.

 

Excellent opinions so far. I just checked the orientation of the characteristic on the coin and it is in a place where a mount would have been. We are not done yet. The truth is out there... Zoom in.

It really helps everyone if folks would GET IN THE HABIT OF EXPLAINING EVERY OBVIOUS THING YOU SEE in an image. It trains your mind and develops an "eye-for-detail." That's why I ask students to describe what they see on a coin to a BLIND person who wants to buy it! Please give it a try.

When you do it this way there are very few incorrect answers.

Example: I see something black that appears to be elongated inside the mark. Now what else do you see?

 

I zoomed in and studied until my eyes crossed and only see a burned surface…… However while I was doing that I took note of what appears to be a particular form to the outline of the burn. Sort of reminds me of the outline of an old Teamsters patch or something. And I cannot resolve in my mind just what significance that may have…… I was 100% sold on an old poorly done solder joint. But there is something else going on here. And now I won’t get any sleep until @Insider gives us the reveal!

 

1. There is damage as seen up against the rim at 12 o’clock in the image.
2. There is a lamination peel at 9 o’clock coming out of the black area. THAT causes me to now question whether it’s damage or a lamination that peeled or was ripped away. And THAT makes me question whether the black is some sort of slag or gunk that collected in that area.
3. The black looks grainy as if it has eaten into the metal.

that’s is for me.

 

What you are looking at is a partially detached lamination. One member at the beginning saw the tiny line running to the left where the metal was not connected at the surface. The big depression is where the surface peeled away because the black impurity prevented the silver of the planchet to bond. After the coin was struck, a chunk came off. If you look closely you can see pushed-up, torn-away metal at the rim. The piece is shown below.

 

Take the gold star from my name tag!

 

I was going to wait until Monday but I didn't want you to lose sleep.

 

Yeah, another one not even close. I will go sit down

 

I did not reply, but @JeffB ’s comment certainly had me thinking. The way the cracks at the left form a triangle that perfectly ties in to the black area had to be important. I did not think of the black crud as being something that collected under a lamination - or that was in the planchet originally and caused the lamination.

@Insider thanks for the explanation.

 

Tonight, I'll not only sleep soundly, I'll sleep smugly.