1851 Half Cent, Error or Damage?

Aethelred

Is the unusual weakness exhibited by this Half Cent a striking anomaly or an example of post-mint damage?

FredWeinberg

Weigh it - It looks like it could possibly be a tapered end planchet.

(could be enviormentally damaged surfaces too)

The weakness is on both sides, same area.
Could be about 6-8% light by weight.

Insider2

Looks like a legit surface and not damage. However, the mark on the rim under the "1" might be damage.

291fifth

Possibly it suffered partial damage in a fire and then was put back into circulation.

Walkerguy21D

What I keep pondering isn't so much the loss/lack of detail, but the rims narrow
significantly also.
The tapered planchet theory is a good one! I'm guessing if the OP rotated the coin
while inspecting the 'third side' he could see the tapering.

JBK

Interesting. Would love to see it be a tapered planchet.

ricko

Without weight or edge view available, I think the tapered planchet is the likely explanation.... Cheers, RickO

seanq

@FredWeinberg said:
Weigh it - It looks like it could possibly be a tapered end planchet.

(could be enviormentally damaged surfaces too)

The weakness is on both sides, same area.
Could be about 6-8% light by weight.

Definitely think Fred is correct here, and that you have a tapered planchet. The key diagnostic is the thinning of the rim - since the planchet was the correct diameter the proto-rim formed correctly during the upsetting process, but then it was too thin to get flattened by the dies.

Here is a contemporary piece with a tapered planchet, you can see the same effect on the rim:

Sean Reynolds

Aethelred

Thanks everyone for the replies. The weight on this example is 4.6g.

FredWeinberg

That's just slightly under 15% underweight.

It's twice as light as I posted above, based
on the photos only.

I believe it's struck on a Tapered Thin Planchet.

johnny9434

its still a neat piece In any case

CaptHenway

Fred is right as always.

Aethelred

Thank you @FredWeinberg and everyone else who replied!