Picked this one up on fleabay a few days ago, as it looked interesting. Advertised as a planchet error, and I think it is, but I'm really not all that familiar with this type error. The coin is about 1/2 thickness in the affected area, and the UNITED is clearly stamped into the thin section (minus the bottom of the D). I don't think it's PMD, but I'm really not sure. Your thoughts? Thanks. taken with my little USB microscope:
Looks like corrosion (electrolysis) sea water can do this. The lettering is more dence and left behind.
Thanks. It's old & worn, like a lot of old circulated indian head cents, but no sign of salt water corrosion on the rest of the coin. The green color is only from the microscope picture - it's not green in hand. The section with UNITED is noticeable lower than the rest of the coin, as if that section were struck on a thinner, sunken part of the planchet. I'm not sure, but I don't think corrosion is the cause.
are coins worth more when they are all beat up ? this one looks beat and banged up about as bad as I do. when a coin is found with post mint damage on one side the other side will be damaged also. I don't know what did this to your coin but something really smashed it up pretty good.
Personally, I'm not sure which it is. However, with the wear on the rest of the coin, I'd be suprised the coin would circulate as long as it did with a planchet error. I'd think it'd be picked out pretty soon after entering circulation, not ending up as a G-4 (or whatever) coin. But, other than that, I don't know if it's PMD or a defect.
Thanks for the opinions. I guess it's pretty tough to really identify what it is. I'll try to get and edge view picture tomorrow.
I hope you didn't pay very much for this coin. I saw it on Ebay and knew instantly that it was just a beat up coin.anytime you find a coin like this that has been struck in the collar and the coin is wider in diameter than a normal coin then you can be sure it is PMD. when your coin got smashed it flared out wider because the coin was not in the retaining collar.this is a good thing to remember when buying coins on Ebay or anywhere else.
Only 11, but I knew that what it was may very well not be what it was advertised as. For only 11 bucks I wanted to get it in hand to give it a closer look. It is flared out a bit in that area, and I noticed that before getting it. But, it still puzzles me that for the amount of metal that appears to be missing, it doesn't seem to be accounted for by a very slight flare out of round in that area - the small degree of being out of round doesn't seem to account for the amount of copper that is missing. When I first saw it I thought it was possibly a hammer coin also, but now that I have it I'm not convinced that's what it is.
