Prooflike SBA Found In CWR

Customer brought in about $150 worth of dollar coins, with 26 being in SBA's. One rally jumped out at me while going through them. It's a 1999 D, but is very much prooflike. It has the reflective finish on the front and back, enough to see clear reflections from 6 inches away. It has been lightly circulated, but it's still a cool piece. It's very hard to take pics of proof and prooflike coins, so I put it with others like it. See if you can tell which one it is....haha. I tried to take a pic of it reflecting words on a paper, but my phone camera kept focusing on the coin itself and not the reflection. You can still kind of see it in the pic. NGC has graded 7 1999 D's as PL. Since mine is circulated, I won't waste the money to submit.

 

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Here are a couple of closeups. The glare makes it hard to photograph.

 

I don't see any frosting of the devices so it could have been an early first strike business issue.

 

Yeah, no cameo effect, just ultra reflective business strike.

 

A PL designation is based solely on the reflectivity of the fields. While some PL coins will exhibit cameo contrasts on the devices and these are desirable, the cameo contrasts are not considered in determining the designation.

 

Plated possibly?

 

Yeah, PL SBAs happen. Yours, while circulated, definitely looks like it has strong PL tendencies.

I happen to own 2 of them. The first is a 99D graded 66PL by NGC. I seem to have misplaced my pictures of the second, so if there is any interest I might try to take some more.

 

Looking at the photographs, I think there is certainly a good possibility. With that said, the image quality is really poor, so it could be almost anything.

 

It's the best pics I can take with my phone at work. I don't know a better way to get a pic of a PL coin to show the qualities. Anyways, a neat find, will stash away in a 2x2 in my binder.

 

The edge shows the copper as normal, so no plating...?

 

That would pretty much rule it out, yes.

 

Wait a minute.....there shouldn't be any copper showing as the outer layers of the coin are manganese brass.

 

And Holy Mackerel, Doug bestows another 'like'? Hell has really been freezing over lately and that's why I'm glad I'm headed for the 'southern' climes..........

 

SBA's are clad... And my Doug like is a Chinese counterfeit... Lol!

 

My suggestion is this:

Perhaps the coin was struck on a planchet originally intended for proof coinage (prepared for such striking by polishing and upsetting) but sent to Denver due to lack of buyers. (The 99 Proof SBAs were struck at Philly)

The 1999 SBAs were only struck because of a perceived need for them by the US Mint. Perhaps once the Proof supplies were satisfied, the rest were struck as business strikes?

I do realize that my supposition is far-fetched, but it makes (some) sense.

 

No.

The modern era of prooflike coinage began in 1984 (nickels and halves begin in this year, all other denominations begin having PL coins by the end of the 1980s). All prooflike coinage struck in this era have similar characteristics, and are almost certainly caused by the same effect. Beginning in the mid-1980's, dies were chrome plated to prolong die life. This finish was highly polished, and the first several strikes from each die produced a prooflike effect. In this modern era, die polish is very rarely seen on prooflike coinage - and almost all of the coins are extremely early die states. These are the true first strike coins.

Prooflike coinage has absolutely nothing to do with the planchet - as proven by the coin shown below. This dime is a 1995P (so, firmly within the modern era), but it was struck off-center. The struck portion shows medium prooflike reflectivity, while the unstruck portion is completely normal (with a matte diffuseness and the tickmarks and hashmarks you expect from an unstruck planchet).

Also, the Denver mint prepared their own planchets. There would have been no transfer of unstruck planchets between the mints.

 

while I have a great deal of respect for your knowledge of the subject, physics fan, the OPs coin is not typically prooflike nor has it been determined to be so. The OP believes his coin is prooflike because of the highly reflective fields. If you notice, the coin is badly bag-marked and the coin has suffered from many hits in a bag or in circulation thereafter.

My suggestion was to try to explain the mirrored fields and the not-so-matching devices.

As for Denver preparing their own planchets, yes, I believe that this is self-evident. All of the Mints prepare their own planchets these days, but if a surplus of planchets existed at a facility that had no capacity to strike them and the need for coins co-existed at a sister facility, the Mint might move them from one Mint to the other.

 

Prooflike means highly reflective fields. That's all it means. It has nothing to do with the devices. It has nothing to do with contrast. It has nothing to do with anything else besides the reflectivity of the coin. The coin posted looks reflective. I see no evidence of plating, I see no evidence of any problems on the coin besides circulation.

I see nothing incongruous in this coin. It looks like a coin that is prooflike, and was circulated. The devices look fine - and I see nothing to suggest anything otherwise.

And no, the mints would not transfer planchets between mints. This would have been far too great a security concern. If you are suggesting otherwise, please provide documentation that this occured. Speculation leads only to myth and confusion - not fact. If you produce evidence, I will consider this a lesson learned.

 

Also, to further help clarify the confusion - the modern era of prooflike coinage (that is, everything after the mid-1980's) does not generally have any cameo contrast. The fields and devices are equally brilliant. This is exactly what I'm seeing in the OPs coin.

 

They do receive strip and create their own planchets for the Nickel through half dollars, and back then fro the dollar coins. Today the cent and dollar planchets are produced by outside contractors. There have also been other times in the past when outside suppliers provided planchets to the mint.

They do sometimes transfer planchets between mints. Rejected proof planchets from San Francisco are shipped to Denver for use on business strikes. It wouldn't have been too likely to ship surplus proof SBA planchets form Philadelphia to Denver though since Philadelphia was striking business strikes themselves, and the number of proof planchets needed for the SBA's was small.

Not on SBA'a.