Folks. Attached are the pictures of the 1968 penny which I picked up from circulation recently. The writing above Lincoln's head seems to almost merge into the rim. Would this be considered an error coin? The coin has seem some circulation and is somewhat beat up as you can see in the pictures. Thanks!
I know nothing about this, but this is what I got from a website: "Also it can look like railroad tracks if the coin has edge reeding. People call dimes, quarters, half dollars and large dollars "Railroad" rims when they're partial collar strike and some of the edge reeding is struck out of place." Pennies don't have reeded edges.
never hear about the reeded edge. I thought it was a result of a MAD, or partial collar. But I have seen plenty of railroad cents at LCS, Ebay, redbook, etc. http://www.ebay.com/sch/Coins-US-/253/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=railroad cent that is an ebay search for railroad cent, at least 4 other people in the world call them railroads too
That's the unfortunate part about this hobby. Someone sees something they've never seen before, and without hesitation gives it the name of something else they've never seen but heard that it exists. Four people in the world? I guess that must definitely be a majority! Chris
I'm don't agree with that description. A Partial Collar Strike looks like a Train Wheel not a Railroad Track. Here is a picture of train wheels Now look at a few examples of Partial Collar aka "Railroad Rim" That I own.. can you see the similarity between the coin and the train wheel.. not the tracks! It's that simple.
You coin guys are like purist home brew guys, you get all screwed up by splitting hairs and then forget about how you split so many hairs. And the rest of us are like...ummm. Why aren't those two photos provided by paddy not an "edge" rather than a "rim"? They are 2 different things, right. Or are we now supposed to subjectively decide what is a rim and what is an edge.
It didn't look like railroad rims on those FleaBay listings to me. Paddy referred to them as railroad rims, not edges. Chris
Comes from old terminology. The coin that paddy showed has been call "railroad rims" for decades even though it is on the edge of the coin and not the rim, probably because it looks like the extended rim of the railroad wheel. That is the problem with "names" they can cause confusion. People see "railroad rim" and they look at the rim. And the rim can have a similar appearance, a raised secondary rim. But that is called either finning when it is caused by metal squeezing up between the collar and neck of the die, or a collar clash when it is cased by the portion of the die that forms the rim having hit the edge of the collar. The proper term is a partial collar, which also explains how it occurs, the planchet was only partially in the collar. In the case of this coin the reason the letters are merging into the rim is two fold. One is simple wear, and two the master hub for the cent had seen decades of ue and over time it had broadened from use. As it did so the lettering moved out further and further from the center. The when the die was turned in the lathe to the proper diameter this meant the lettering got closer and closer to the rims. Buy 1968 the L in LIBERTY and the tops of IGWT were often beginning to merge with the rim. In 1969 a brand new master hub was created that reduced the size of the bust, sharpened the details, and moved the inscriptions in closer to the center and away from the rims. If you put a 1968 cent next to a 1969 you will see the changes are rather dramatic.
This is an old thread Chris. Welcome to CT. This thread has quite a few coins to pick one out. Which coin are you referring to?
