Did this Dime come from the mint like this?

halfload

Hello everyone! I'm curious as to whether or not this dime could have come from the mint like this or if maybe ground up by something in circulation.

PeakRarities

Didn’t happen at the mint, it was just abused.

halfload

Thank you!

may

🪙🔨

Che_Grapes

Train tracks!

HillbillyCollector

Perhaps it came in contact with a Bulldozer, and lost!😂

Jimnight

No it did not.

Cranium_Basher73

Sapyx

Whenever you find an "odd looking coin" with unusual kinds of damage, and you're wondering whether it might be mint-made damage, just consider the coin holistically, and you should eliminate lots of the "false errors" that are actually PMD.

In this case, let's consider it logically. The coin's date is 1991, or thereabouts - that means it was issued into circulation a long time ago (thirty years!). If you've just received it in change today, it's not brand new. That's thirty years for someone to notice how awfully, vending-machine-jammingly out of shape it is. Seriously, you put that thing into a vending machine and I strongly suspect it ain't coming out again. Someone else would have noticed, and pulled it from circulation, long before it got to you - if it had actually come out of the mint looking like that.

They didn't. So, logically, it didn't come out of the mint looking like that, and would have acquired the damage much more recently.

So, what might have done the damage? To me, this looks like very typical mechanical damage: the coin got stuck in some kind of industrial shredding device - a coffee grinder, tree mulcher, recyclables processor, car crusher or some such - and been whacked and scraped about inside it a few times before being retrieved.

This coin is, indeed, getting almost to, if it has not indeed crossed, the line where it is no longer legal tender and has become a "mutilated coin" - meaning not even the banks are legally obligated to accept it as 10 cents.

MarkKelley

Another BATH coin!

cladking

Let's just say this dime has had a busy life.

Back in the very early part of this century the coin got caught up in machinery. This is very very common. The most common is automobile shredders or balers but there are countless industries where such damage can occur. The coin may have been lost in a car because it was severely damaged enough that it wouldn't go through a machine. The reverse damage is unlikely to have been caused at the same time as the rest of it.

Many coins fall out of these machines virtually pristine, most go on through with the scrap, and some drop out at the site on on route to a melting furnace. They can accumulate on the floors of railroad cars because most scrap is unloaded with a magnet.

In any case these coins are often gathered up and used but the damaged coins must be repaired. This might sound like a chore but it usually takes only a few seconds and well placed blows with a hammer and then a little light filing.

Most will actually work in most vending machines. Eventually they'll go through a counter in the wrong orientation and be rejected or someone will pick them out of circulation as a cull or a curiosity. The government buys these for 100% of face (by weight) but I doubt very many are actually redeemed. Most of the culls that are redeemed come from municipal incinerators or the like.

Every year 12,000,000 cars are recycled and they each contain about 20 coins on average. There are many machines that destroy coins and more coins are likely destroyed and lost by household vacuum cleaners than any other.

cladking

It is interesting that it did circulate after the repair job so it most probably will work in vending machines.

privatecoin

Post apocalyptic

johnny9434

@HillbillyCollector said:
Perhaps it came in contact with a Bulldozer, and lost!😂

Was that the one in the parking lot of a super store?

ricko

@halfload.... Welcome aboard. Yes, your coin has Post Mint Damage (PMD) and no numismatic premium. Cheers, RickO