Is this evidence of a fake?

I bought a roll of 1940s Walking Liberty Halves on eBay from a seller with a feedback of over 56,000. A couple of them seem to be thinner on one side than the other. I've weighed them and the have the correct weight.

Is it unusual for a planchet not to be the same thickness all the way around? The one in the middle is an example of what I am talking about?

Thanks.

 

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I've never really paid attention to the actual thicknesses of a Walking Liberty half dollar, I guess what appears to be a thinner thickness in a portion of the diameter is caused by the collar. The collar actually holds the planchet, (blank coin) in place when the dies forcibly strike it and the collar imparts the reeded edge at the same time. The metal flows into voids creating a perfectly round, flat coin with reeded edges.

The area in question is nothing but a slight anomaly in the raised rim and beveled edge. Before a coin is struck, blanks are fed through a machine that raises the stacking edge which will eventually become the rim.

What you are seeing here is not indicative to counterfeiting a coin, I do believe this to be a normal minting observation.

Happy Collecting

 

The smog must be getting to you!

Chris

 

WLHalves should be 1.8mm thick.

 

Thanks. You've put my mind at ease.

 

I really don't think you have anything to worry about. It seems to me I've ran into this before. Besides, it wouldn't be worth a counterfeiter's time to make fakes of such a low value coin in my opinion.

 

Good point. I didn't pay too much over melt for the roll anyway. Of course only a couple are like this and silver has really gone up since then. :hail:

 

I agree that the op is safe, but...
One of my local coin dealers has a counterfeit 1983 quarter, which is worth about 25 cents, someone made it. Sometimes I think a crook would rather spend all day making a dollar illegally rather than spend ten minutes making one legally. I think it has something to do with pride in their profession.

If they try to make a counterfiet 1825 quarter it is going to be heavily scrutinized, scrutiny a common coin would not recieve, if they can make a million counterfiets for 6 cents a piece that is 190k profit to them.