Ok coiniacs here's one for you. I am posting this on behalf of my local coin shop. We both believe this coin to be fake, possibly half of a magicians coin. Any input would be appreciated. I know the first question is weight, however my scale is out of batteries and I can't find them anywhere. It is considerably lighter than a normal cent. The revers is normal with only a slight double rim. Is it called a railroad rim? Can't remember. The obverse is totally gone, but still has a rim. The revers can be seen through the obverse. My coin shop guy said he has magician coins and they all are smooth on the side that is hollowed. This has some gouges and what looks like lamination peels on the obverse. So, can a coin be machined out and still show features from the other side? Looking forward to your responses, Michael
Mill out space to insert a cut-down obverse in order to make a magician's coin. Keep milling a little too long Make a couple of gouge marks Start over with a different coin and let Michael's dealer find the first one.
I agree. It looks like the milling bit pulled on the coin lifting it a bit out of it's fixture as it was cutting. After all a screw-up is cheap, only 1 cent.
Yes that is it. Was supposed to have a dime on one side and a penny on the other. If you know of any stores that sell magic paraphanalia, they should have some. There are a series of coins where there are 2 heads, 2 tails, dime on one side with penny on the other side, quarter with a nickel on the other side, Lincoln Cent on one side and Canadian on the other, etc. Check out a magic store if you have one in the area.
Oh, one more thing is if you look at ebay and type in two headed or tailed coins you'll see there are 33 entries for sale.
This is an authentic mint error. It's either a split-after-strike error or, more likely, a split-before-strike planchet that was struck beneath a full thickness planchet. The finning of the reverse rim indicates increased striking pressure, which is a side effect two stacked planchets. An incuse ghost image of the reverse design on the obverse is also an inevitable side effect of such an error.
Thanks Mike, A few questions. Since I automatically lean toward the easy answer first, fake coin, my second guess was a split planchet of some sort. The first you mentioned I can't believe. I don't recall seeing an entire obverse split off in uniform leaving an intact rim. Back to fake. The second idea you mentioned makes more sense to me. I was wondering how a coin could have a ghost of the reverse through the obverse? I thought it was from the splitting of the planchet. In my mind there is no way to mill a coin from the obverse and be able to see the reverse. So is the ghost image from the other coin that was stacked? My coin guy is interested in moving this coin, as they all are, can you give me a ballpark on a value? Also I will go ahead and ask, but will go and start looking now, is there any info out there or on Coneca about these types of errors? Thanks again Mike, Michael
I agree with Mike, A magician's coin will be completely smooth on the side that's milled out. Those aren't scratches, rather laminations. Nice find!
Coin metal conforms to the recesses of the die face. Both surfaces of a thin wafer of metal will conform to the nearest recess (in this case the reverse face) when another planchet is stacked on top of it. In other words, the entire disc will deform, with the upper surface sinking down into the recess, forming the incuse image of the Memorial you see on the obverse. These errors are surprisingly common and usually sell for between $10 and $20 on eBay. I've sold several and have never gotten more than this. There's nothing on the CONECA website specifically about this error type. It's a combination error (split planchet and in-collar uniface strike), and most glossaries and references deal with only simple errors. In this case it would probably be covered under the "split planchet" category.
Thanks again Mike, you never cease to amaze me. Does your brain ever hurt from so much knowledge? Happy hunting, Michael
