Strike of a Lincoln Cent Question

Cam40

Its a 1984 D Zincoln that sort of caught my eye.The reverse looked different.It reminds me of what a broad-strike would look like.The whole design on the reverse looks slightly inflated.
I know its not odd to see the letters blend into the rim on a well cirulated coin, but this has the full rim and is an AU55
RD.
Question is could it be a slight broad-strike and still have a normal circumference?


pic one
pic two

How did the reverse design expand this way?

Conder101

Possibly stuck to the obverse die and acted as a die cap for a few strikes but not enough to seriously distort the coin. As the die cap creates brockage pieces the spreading of the metal causes the design on the cap to spread as well.

Cam40

Thats Conder,That sounds logical.I guess it is slight brockage I,m seeing.
After looking at so many Lincolns this one stood out to me.
If considered an error I,m sure its pretty minor,but not as minor as machine doubling I,m thinking.
Or is it that minor?
Its still only a cent huh.

coppercoins

Actually if it ends up being some sort of die cap error, it's worth quite a bit more than machine doubling. I don't know how much more, but error people pay decent money for errors that are noticeable, and that one is noticeable.

Cam40

Thanks C.D.
I,m not too clear on the terminolgy.This is a `die-cap` error which shows as `brockage`?
So,technicaly its a capped-die error?
Also,It appears somewhat subtle to me BUT noticable enough.
How minor IS it in terms of what collectors look for.
Thanks.

Conder101

The problem is that with a die cap you get two related but completely different looking errors. Here we go step by step. For arguments sake and to illustrate the coin this thread is about the anvil die is the reverse and the hammer die is the obverse.

1 Planchet drops into coining chamber and is struck by dies creating a coin.

2. The coin sticks to the obverse (hammer) die, becoming a die cap piece.

3. Another planchet feeds into the coining chamber. Now below this planchet we have the reverse die and coming down fast and hard upon it is the REVERSE of the previously struck coin. So the planchet in the chamber has a raised image of the reverse on one side and in incuse image of the reverse on the other. This is a full brockage piece.

4. The Brockage is ejected and another planchet is fed in and step 3 is repeated. This repeats until the die cap falls off or is noticed by the operator and is removed.

Every time step 3 is repeated the spreading of the planchet in the coining chamber also causes a slight spreading and flattening of the reverse design on the die cap. Also the striking face of the cap gets thinner and thinner as the metal is forced sideways and up around the body of the die. (The die cap starts to look like a bottle cap as it spreads down the side of the die.) In the case of the subject coin the cap only stayed stuck for a couple strikes before it fell away (This is if I am right about it being a die cap piece.) If it says longer the reverse design on the face gets VERY spread and distorted in middle stages. In late stages it may not be visible at all and the obverse design begins to show though again. In a VERY late stage the full relief version of the obverse will be visible with an odd mushyness and possibly with what looks like a couple of wrinkles in the fields like it was struck through say a sheet of aluminum foil. And of course that is exactly what HAS happened except it is a foil of coinage metal.

The Colletors Clearinghouse in the Feb 10 issue of Coin World has some nice examples of middle and late stage die caps on the bottom left of the page.

Hopefully this clears up any confusing between die caps and Brockages.