Series of 1990 ASE with Strike through??

Justacoinflippinfool

Hello,

I have a roll of 1990 Am. Silver Eagles. There is peculiar looking chip on the obverse side of 9 coins. It progresses from a mere blemish on the first coin, and every successive coin gets more pronounced until the 9th coin.

I thought it was a strike through. Perhaps, a metal shaving got on the die, which worked its way on, then off over the course of 9 coins. The fact that it gets progressively larger (or, smaller) and is located in the exact same location in series, leads me to think that it was done during the minting process, and NOT a planchet error, or PMD. Any ideas??

Thanks!!

pursuitofliberty

I can see it on the closeup and one from the group photo. It is a strike through (something on the die). If you have nine progressively different but from the same inclusion, that could be really a quite interesting study with very clear and detailed pictures.

JBK

Where is the mark? On her thigh?

Justacoinflippinfool

No. It's on her head cap. The part of the cap, which flops over.

JBK

Maybe grease (perhaps with inclusions) that thinned out over subsequent strikes?

ricko

I can see it in the enlarged picture, though not clearly. I cannot see it in the group photo's. Cheers, RickO

ctf_error_coins

Strike thru error

Justacoinflippinfool

Huh. I never thought of grease. > @pursuitofliberty said:

I can see it on the closeup and one from the group photo. It is a strike through (something on the die). If you have nine progressively different but from the same inclusion, that could be really a quite interesting study with very clear and detailed pictures.

I have a dedicated scope with better light and more magnification, which I will set up for better pictures. In the meantime, it appears as if the collar was coming loose too, as there are slight 'railroad marks' and raised lips along the edge. In addition, there are different strike through marks throughout the series. Also, it appears that there are 10 coins, which might be affected. But, there are other coins in the roll, which have raised lips, that are not part of the strike through series. That's about all I could tell with a 30x loupe. My scope has 200x with a dimmer for the light.

It definitely tells a story. It looks like something broke off, or found its way onto the die and caused a sloppy fit with the collar. And, one coin shows a definite 'blast' of material, impregnated north into the field between her cap and the letter.

I think I'm going to weigh them and get some thickness and OD measurements, too. Do you know if they used silver planchets that would be of slightly different sizes for medals during that period. It's not that I think that's an issue, but I was wondering what could also cause a sloppy fit collar.

Any idea if it's worth getting the whole series slabbed and verified? I mean, other than sloppy maintenance, it wouldn't really be considered an error. Although, considering that there were only 5.84 million Silver Eagles minted in 1990, I can't imagine that production was too busy. Of course, having a bunch of coins showing the progression could be valuable. Thoughts?

Thanks.

Oldhoopster

Plan on spending $30-50 each if you want them graded by a TPG. IMO, it wouldn't be worth it.

I don't think they are a partial collars, it looks more like a finned rim. Here's a good explanation.
http://www.error-ref.com/?s=Finned+rim

Finally, a 5x-10x loupe is generally adequate for errors. If you can't see it with that, then there probably won't be much interest, and at 200x....well you can probably find an anomaly on every coin in you have.

Justacoinflippinfool

@Oldhoopster said:
Plan on spending $30-50 each if you want them graded by a TPG. IMO, it wouldn't be worth it.

I don't think they are a partial collars, it looks more like a finned rim. Here's a good explanation.
http://www.error-ref.com/?s=Finned+rim

Finally, a 5x-10x loupe is generally adequate for errors. If you can't see it with that, then there probably won't be much interest, and at 200x....well you can probably find an anomaly on every coin in you have.

First of all, thanks for the link. Yes, it looks like single sided finned rims, except there IS definitely some light rail-looking impressions on the surface of some of the coins' edges. So, it looks like misaligned dies are partly to blame.

The remark regarding the scope was just for taking close up pictures. I mean, you can see the strike through with an unaided eye, and the rail marks can be seen wearing just reading glasses. Of course, a young person could probably see them without needing any magnification.

Thanks!!