I have been helping a friend go through her mother's coins, and I came across this very peculiar dime. It is much thinner than a regular dime. It appears to be of uniform thickness, but is clearly showing copper around the edges. It is slightly smaller in diameter than a regular dime. It is reeded. There is also a crack on the obverse at about 5o'clock. I apologize for the poor pictures. My best efforts are so so at best. Is it a planchet error of some type? My friend wants to know the value if any. First post, after reading many.
Interesting. Weigh it to X.xx grams. Measure its diameter to X.xx millimeters. Those pieces of info will tell a lot.
Not much rim showing, the coin possibly glued or rust damage. I agree that should weigh the coin then go from there.
Weighs 1.25 grams. My scale shows a standard dime weighs 2.27 grams. I don't have ruler but if you place in front of a standard dime, the rim of the bigger dime shows all the way around.
So the pics show the dime sitting on top of a regular dime with the rim of the bigger dime showing all the way around. There is a picture of the a regular dime held directly next to the thin dime. Then there is a picture showing both dimes held slightly separated with the thin dime on the left, showing it to be much thinner than the standard dime. Roughly half the regular dime thickness. The discoloration is inherent to the dime itself and is not from glue or other sources. A standard dime that was worn to this thickness would be a smooth disk without any features. It is my opinion that it was thin to begin with. Sorry about the duplicated photos.
Only the person that did it knows how and why it was done, but it's an acid treated coin, worth... wait for it... TEN CENTS.
So. Which acid would one use to eliminate the rim, reduce the diameter, reduce the thickness by over half, reduce the weight by over a gram, and yet leave readable letters and recognizable features? Just curious cause that seems to be a neat trick.
Actually those are the exact symptoms of an acid reduced metal coin. The letters, etc. stay distinguishable as both the raised surfaces and the fields of the coin are removed equally by the acid ( any strong enough for the composition), whereas wear removes the raised surfaces first ( slick coin) and then reduces the fields. Acid treated coin.
The interesting thing about this coin is that most acid soaked coins use an acid that attacks the copper more strongly. In this case they have come up with something that attacks the nickel alloy more strongly than the copper.
I have a 1972 dime almost like this, it has its clad but no rim and it's probably 1/3 thinner than a regular dime. Does this mean it's an acid dime?
