I recently inherited a coin collection and came across three pennies that look like they have been shaved off in different locations. One is a 1942 Wheat Penny, one is a 1946-S Wheat Penny, and the other is a regular 1968-D penny. Thoughts?
All Incomplete Planchet errors. What Is A Clipped Planchet? How Can You Tell If You've Got A Genuine Clipped Planchet Error Coin Or A Damaged Coin? Here Are 4 Things To Look For! | The U.S. Coins Guide (thefuntimesguide.com) Curved Clips (error-ref.com)
Those coins are called Incomplete Planchet Errors. People have tried to recreate it but those are damaged. Yours are the genuine thing. See how one coin fills the missing area completely. This should help you understand how it happens. Planchets are cut from a sheet. If the sheet doesn’t advance correctly a piece is missing. The correct term is an Incomplete Planchet. There are curved clips, the most common, and straight clips and a few other types. Here is one of mine that has been graded and slabbed. Yours are fairly common but one like this is not. It’s a triple clip on a Half Dollar and it’s a tough one to find.
The first one is a genuine clip, but are we sure about the others? The 1946-S in particular is pretty ragged, looks to me like it was cut.
Copper cents are used to remove rust from blued steel gun barrels. Used as scratch off ticket tools. Some clips are hard to tell. If it came out of mint uncirculated roll great, otherwise you probably have to get it authenticated.
The Kennedy half may have started out valid, but it looks like someone wanted to make it more intense.
