Not sure if many of you Americans are familiar with bi-metallic coins but Canada, the Euro and many other countries use them. I've been going to the bank asking 100$ withdrawals in a particular denomination Anyway, was just going through a 100$ worth of toonies (2$ coin) and as you know, the Canadian 2$ coin is bi-metallic. I noticed almost every other coin is struck off centre for the core. (I'll post a pic once I get home). Portion of the core would taper into the rim that is suppose to be struck on the ring metal. Some are blantantly off centre with the rim for the ring struck over the core metal. There I thought, i suppose the coin is struck AFTER the 2 pieces of metals have been "assembled". And the ring and core dies are interchangeable, thus having this possibility of the core being struck off centre. I think the challenge becomes to find a perfectly centre-struck coin! The 1996 coin is particularly a mess. I had a hard time finding a perfectly centred coin. It was the first year this coin was introduced and has by far the greatest mintage. Today, the 1996 toonie outnumbers any other year given a roll of random toonies. Anyone knows how these bi-metallic coins are struck/constructed? and if any off-centre coins are worth more or less than the perfectly struck coin?
In his report on a visit to the Royal Mint, (http://www.limunltd.com/numismatica/stories/wales-mint.html) in 1995 an English numismatist said: If both parts are struck in a single "quick thump", it's hard to understand how the centers could be randomly offset struck, so perhaps the method used in the Royal Mint differs somehow from the one used in Canada. BTW - I don't know if anyone has already posted a link to >> this site << but it's one that should be in every numismatist's bookmarks.
