can anyone tell me what kind of washers are used in the minting process of the cent? I have a 1995 cent with weird markings on it I think a washer may have somehow been caught in the die. I would post pics but I can't seem to take one that shows all the details.
So you don't know what kind of washer is used? a picture of my coin does not have a bearing on what type of washer the mint uses.
I imagine if you looked around you could find sheet metal washers, lock washers, split ring washers, spacer washers probably some other types and probably in half a dozen different sizes. So is that any help?
They are zinc planchets used now days. Used to be copper. They are made in Greenville tn about 10 minutes down the road. After this they are sent to the various mints to be processed as cents. Dusty
not the best pictures but the best I could get. it has the marking of a2-70 stamp on it backwards along the ridge that goes through the bust.
Most likely post mint damage. People do all kinds of weird things to coins. Without clearer pics front and back i would say take it to a coin show and show some dealers.
If the lettering is backwards, it means the original item with the lettering correctly forward was pressed into the soft coin with a vise, or hammered in it to leave the impression ( Called a squeeze job) . Done after minting as noted above. People try to sell on ebay and CL to unsuspecting people.
I understand the whole "squeeze job" concept but if something where to get caught in between the die and planchet would it not create the same result? of a backwards image?
working on getting better pictures of front and back and will be taking it somewhere to have it looked at
If that happened I doubt the die would leave an impression on the planchet on the area where the washer is in the way.
Yes. If it truly happened at the mint, the cent would not have the design impressed on it if something was in the striking chamber. OP, if a washer got in between the cent and the die, how could the die have struck the coin? Answer is that it wouldn't, and you would see part of the coin struck, and the other part with just an impression of the "thing" that got in the way. Actually, a steel washer would pretty much destroy a cent planchet. This is why we can tell you we are relatively certain this damage was done after the cent was struck, which makes it not a mint error but a damaged coin.
