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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1821100, member: 19463&quot;]I&#039;d say the blank was broken from the chain/tree it was cast as a part of leaving an indented edge space rather like the other coins shown above.&nbsp; Then it was struck slightly unevenly causing the metal to spread out more to that side.&nbsp; If it is your job to separate flans, I&#039;d guess you would tap each with a hammer or pry with pliers.&nbsp; Some would break cleanly; some would break off retaining a small sprue; some would break into the flan slightly like these.&nbsp; You could then take a file or nippers to correct the ones with extra metal but the ones with missing metal would be pronounced as &quot;good enough for government work&#039;&#039;.&nbsp; The most unusual situation is the leaving of the sprue as on the OP coin because it could have been corrected with a small nip .&nbsp; The ones missing metal would require remelting to correct and that would not be worth the effort.&nbsp;&nbsp; Some mints in some periods seemed to care a lot more about making round and even coins than did some others.&nbsp; Some collectors place a lot more importance on having smooth, round coins than others.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If you get a chance to see photos of entire hoards, it is interesting to see the range of workmanship quality within the group.&nbsp; If your only exposures to what coins look like are CNG catalogs, you might get the idea that the quality level at the mint was more consistent than it was.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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