I used a 1973 half dollar in comparison and everything on this 1985 half dollar seems stretched out and the collar looks unusual as well. Thoughts?
Your coin definitely looks strange and I cannot tell if its the power of suggestion or what but the bust looks unusually large for a 1985. I have no idea what may have caused this other than possibly a problem with the collar while the coin was minted. Of course, that would not addres the unusual size of the bust. Try the Mint Error forum over on the CONECA website. http://board.conecaonline.org/forumdisplay.php?f=4
Perfectly normal, less than fully struck half dollar. After the blank goes through the upsetting machine to convert it into a planchet, the edge is not perfectly flat up and down and perpendicular to the faces. It may be rounded, or a truncated V shape (A V with the point cut off.) Now when that lands in the coining press and gets struck what happens? The planchet expands outward and makes contact with the collar. What part makes contact first? the center or that cut off point of the V. As the pressure increases the reeds get impressed into that area. As the strike continues that portion pressed against the collar gets broader and broader until it meets the top edge of the rim. On a proof coin it mets in at a nice sharp squared corner. On a fully struck business strike the corner may round over a little. On a less than fully struck coin the trucated point of the V gets broader, but the sides of the V are still there at the end of the strike. Those sides of the V are what the little arrows are pointing to in your second picture. It looks like a beveled area between the reeds, and the rim.
Yeah, that's a completely normal half. The mid-80s halves look like that, they struck them differently or changed the design some since the 70s.
