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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;RonSanderson, post: 3928297, member: 77413&quot;]Definitely keep that. It is a store of knowledge you can’t get elsewhere.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sure, they aren’t valuable; you can get one, and the webbing that it was punched from, for a few dollars on eBay.</p><p><br /></p><p>But, you do get to examine the blank that becomes the coin. On a planchet, you can see all the beatings that the blank receives in the manufacturing process. The planchet strip is flattened and rolled out, leaving its marks. Then the planchets are punched out, and put into a washer where they are rolled around with other planchets. This leave different marks, usually a bit crescent shaped where the curve of the edge of another blank has left a ding.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sometimes these are smoothed out during the strike of the coin, but often the marks on the planchet survive in the final coin. They may be closed up somewhat, but often they are there. It’s valuable to know when the mark on a coin is pre-strike, and in the planchet itself, as opposed to post-strike damage. And, it’s important to know that a coin that is less than perfectly struck will still show these planchet marks on the high points, like Lincoln’s shoulder on a penny or Jefferson’s jaw on a nickel.</p><p><br /></p><p>So keep it and see if you can identify similar marks on actual coins. It’s a great insight into the minting process, and an important step to understanding the coins you look at.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1035418[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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