I know, post-mint damage. But not on the edge? Calling Dan Carr!
jonathanb
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This is a medal produced for the 1964 New York World's Fair This was struck outside of the US Mint, but in reasonable quantity and usually in high quality.
There are two obvious dents on this example at 2:30 and 8:30 on the reverse. There are corresponding raised areas on the obverse that are plenty obvious in hand although not so obvious in the picture. The normal design is present in the raised areas on the obverse and the recessed areas on the reverse. We know that it couldn't possibly have been struck this way.
So fine, it's damaged. Ho hum.
But a coin (medal) has three sides. The edge of this one is NOT damaged. it's fully round, and the collar marks continue without interruption into the areas of the edge that line up with the damage.
The best I can come up with would be that this was struck normally then got stuck in the collar. At that point, someone used a physical tool to hammer it loose manually. In a case like that the obverse and reverse could be damaged without affecting the edge, since it was fully constrained by the collar until someone knocked it free.
I've never heard of that happening but at least I could imagine it.
@dcarr (or anyone else) -- does that sound reasonable? Or do you have a better idea that could explain how to get the obverse and reverse so damaged without damage to the edge?
Comments
I don't see why the edge needs to be damaged.
If you deform a coin this much, the edge would be deformed also. Try it with loose change if you doubt it.
It looks like it was made this way for some reason and is not actually damage. The deformations look identical on both sides of the medal and are exactly 180 degrees apart. Typically, damage is more random.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I agree, this is atypical. That's why I posted :-)
If someone can explain how to produce something that looks like this without being damaged, I'd be interested in that also!
Are you sure that it was struck in a collar? It does look like it was, based in the images, but I can’t tell for sure. My question is leading to the possibility that it was damaged while it had an edge flange that was later lathed off.
Regardless, it appears that the medal is unfinished (no final processing of the surfaces, which is quite an extensive process), so it’s possible that the damage was done, as you suspect, before it left the production facility, and they didn’t finish the medal because of the damage.
Perhaps was in a mount of some sort?
Maybe some mishap during the minting of it caused it to be stuck in the collar ?
And then some tool was used to pound it out of the collar ?
I've had to do that a few times.
I think you might have it! The edge is smooth, with microscopic vertical scratches. I interpreted those as ejection marks from a collar, since a lathe would leave horizontal marks (I think). But if the flange was removed via a punch rather than a lathe, the vertical scratches could just as well have come from the punch and everything else would be explained.
Good thinking!
A philosophical question: When does the minting process end? Supposing that scenario really did happen. If something was damaged after the strike but unquestionably before the finishing, would that put it back in the error category? This medal has no value to speak of either way. I'm just talking out loud...
In that scenario, it's Post Strike Damage.