Fred, do you know of any website that shows what the feeder finger mechanism looks like and how it is connected to the coin press? I've been looking for years & years and have never been able to find any examples. Also, are these coins pretty common? I would think they might be but am not sure. TIA! Chris
Although I've seen the damaged FF's at the Philly Mint, I don't have any photos of them showing them in the die/collar area. I believe Coin World did an article on them 12-15 years ago, with some photos. Yes, they're fairly common - I've seen them on cents thru quarters, (no halves, as far as I know), and Sac. and Presidential dollars. And common in quantity too - there are runs of hundreds and hundreds of them, found in Ballistic Bags and original Mint rolls. Rarely do they have much of a premium, I've found, as they are easily discovered, in my experience.
I can verify that by having done so many solid date bank boxes over the past ten or so years. In one box of 2009 P Formative years, I found over 100 and found a similarity while going through a good many rolls of the Homestead quarter issue. Where I worked for 38 years making syringes we also employed the use of finger feeders to transfer the completed syringe to the packaging procedure. Each unit had 10 fingers, all air actuated. The fingers had soft rubber tips to avoid scratching the barrels and the rubber tips were prone to falling off from time to time and scratching those barrels. Not sure if the Mint employs a similar set up or not.
Ask @mikediamond; I've seen a few articles by him covering this topic. There are also other error coin experts on this. There's also other site that cover this topic. Google can be a good resource. https://www.ngccoin.com/boards/topic/414005-96-lincoln-w-feeder-finger-gouges/
Thanks! When I get the chance, I'll go through my old copies of Coin World, Dec/2004-Dec/2008, and see if I can find it. I wonder if @mikediamond could narrow the search for me? Chris
