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How hard can it be ? ...

dcarrdcarr Posts: 8,466 ✭✭✭✭✭

... to engrave "UNITED" correctly.

This is kind of funny. I think the engraver needed a "Snicker's" bar.

1969 Apollo 11 Moon Landing bronze medals from Lombardo Mint (of Canada).

"UINTED" :

Backwards "N" :

Finally, an apparently normal "UNITED", although upon closer inspection it appears that some correction was done to the die:


I think there is also a normal version of this medal without error or error correction. It may be rarer than the error versions.

.

Comments

  • Namvet69Namvet69 Posts: 8,970 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Someone was comfortably numb 😎

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  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,345 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Probably rushed into production in an effort to cash in on the moon landing fever of the time. Apollo 11 medals were hot item in the period just after the landing and many types exist from many different makers.

    All glory is fleeting.
  • BStrauss3BStrauss3 Posts: 3,414 ✭✭✭✭✭

    In fairness, as you of all people know, the dies are reversed :smiley:

    I kind of wished they had dyslexed two letters, giving us the

    UNTIED STATES

    -----Burton
    ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
  • AngryTurtleAngryTurtle Posts: 1,566 ✭✭✭

    @dcarr , what technology would have typically been in use back in those days (Im assuming the medal came out ca. 1969)? Would this have been done completely by hand?

  • Manifest_DestinyManifest_Destiny Posts: 6,896 ✭✭✭✭✭


  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,143 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That Engraver really cratered out!

    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • sellitstoresellitstore Posts: 2,870 ✭✭✭✭✭

    ....to deliberately strike "Errors"- not very hard.

    Collector and dealer in obsolete currency. Always buying all obsolete bank notes and scrip.
  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,541 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Backwards Ns are nothing new. In 1691 Limerick Ireland, which was under siege I can sort of get it. In 1969 not so much.

    In memory of my kitty Seryozha 14.2.1996 ~ 13.9.2016 and Shadow 3.4.2015 - 16.4.21
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,133 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The image on the face of the die is the mirror image of what will be on the coin struck from it so it can be easy for the die engraver to make a mistake. Back when printers assembled individual letters in a wooden or metal frame, it was just as easy to get confused. That's when the expression "Watch your p's and q's." came from.

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  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 28,330 ✭✭✭✭✭

    ooops, sorry bout that boss :'(

  • BLUEJAYWAYBLUEJAYWAY Posts: 9,110 ✭✭✭✭✭

    United We Stand, Divided We "Fail" (Fall)

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  • oih82w8oih82w8 Posts: 12,208 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @PerryHall I seem to remember that "p's and q's" had something to do with servers keeping track of pints and quarts at drinking establishments. 🤔

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  • dcarrdcarr Posts: 8,466 ✭✭✭✭✭

    On these different dies, the central elements are all exactly the same, down to the smallest details. So I think the dies were made via a transfer from a plaster model. But the outer text may have been engraved or punched into the dies directly.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 15,579 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 5, 2024 9:53AM

    @oih82w8 said:
    @PerryHall I seem to remember that "p's and q's" had something to do with servers keeping track of pints and quarts at drinking establishments. 🤔

    True.

    "Mind your pints and quarts" in Britain, so people wouldn't overindulge, as I heard it from a tour guide on a London pub crawl.

    I've never heard the typesetting angle but it seems applicable there, as well.

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