A really strange find?

joeykoins

Hi guys, just bought 200 wheats from my favorite B+M shop. I found this peculiar wheat. Can this be a proof? It weighs close to where it should be. Could this be a planchet error? Thanks

JBK

What type of planchet error would cause this?

Looks to me like someone planed off the reverse.

Tom147

S mint. Not a proof.

jesbroken

Looks like about 10% was removed from reverse. Someone on the clock, but bored with too much time.
Jim

rec78

S mints were not proofs in those years. No proof cents were made from 1918-1935. Someone just sheared the back off of that coin. Put it in a Whitman folder and you will never know the difference.

joeykoins

ThanksGuy's. Although, I just weighed another normal 1921s. It weighed 2.9

291fifth

It may have been machined to get a smooth surface. It would then have been glued to something else to serve as a decoration. Later, another owner of the item in question decided to remove the coin, possibly thinking it was a "rare" date, only to be disappointed when the smoothed reverse was noticed. The coin would then have just been put back into circulation. Being damaged, it would have circulated heavily since it had become the "bad penny that always comes back".

johnny9434

They forgot the reverse die? For lack of a better answer

JBK

@johnny9434 said:
They forgot the reverse die? For lack of a better answer

No reverse die, no offsetting resistance in the press, so there would be no obverse impression.

The planchet must be "squeezed" between two dies for either side's details to be struck up.

JBK

@joeykoins said:
ThanksGuy's. Although, I just weighed another normal 1921s. It weighed 2.9

That coin was struck in a collar with proper pressure to get the obverse details to strike up like that. The only possibility would be if the mint had a flat die lying around that they installed where the normal reverse would go. And the chance of that is 0%.

The weight of the removed metal was obviously small, and maybe it started slightly overweight.

Can't be a split planchet as the weight loss would be greater and the surface would show either a sharp or ghosted impression on the reverse, and it would not be that smooth.

ricko

That is PMD.... No idea of why or who....but could not have come from the mint that way. Cheers, RickO

tincup

What does the side view of the rim look like?

johnny9434

thank you jbk

2dueces

@ricko said:
That is PMD.... No idea of why or who....but could not have come from the mint that way. Cheers, RickO

Had a lathe operator tell me he would plain copper coins to check his sharpness and mic calibrators. I think he was just showing off his skills.

seanq

I think the term you’re looking for isn’t proof but “splasher,” which is a single side die trial. A splasher would not be struck with a collar, while your coin obviously was. I agree with others who said the reverse design was planed off the planchet.

Sean Reynolds