Has anybody ever heard of mint made graffiti on a bust half dollar??

Myqqy

This guy is making an interesting claim here......

ms70

He says that the graffiti is raised indicating it was cut into the dies. I wonder if it's just raised metal to the sides of the initials being carved
into the coin.

TommyType

I wonder if the "raised" lettering is due to the metal being pushed up by the cutting. Certainly doesn't look mint-made to me.

wam98

I'm not convinced without a closer examination.

Conder101

Post mint alteration. MS70 is correct on the cause. The closest I can think of for mint made graffiti would be the 33 P's punched into the platinum experimental bust halves. Or the "This is coin X of the first 100 morgan dollars struck at the denver mint" that they engraved on the first 100 1921-D Morgans. And i wouldn't guarantee that that engraving was actually done by the mint and not an outside jeweler hired for the purpose.

BillJones

An odd aspect concerning some deep scratches is that they can look like they are raised at first glance. The reason is that the scratch cuts a trough into the coin, and the displaced metal on either side is raised. Sometimes it takes a quick look with a 10X glass to see the channel from which the metal was displaced.

This coin looks like an outside of the mint scratch job to me.

ziggy29

The only "graffiti" I'm aware of on early coins are adjustment marks.

Nysoto

On bust halves there are raised lines from engraver errors, die gouges resulting in raised marks or lumps, dots in various places from unknown reasons, spalling from die deterioration, die rust, etc. Some of these defects were lapped off, as some dies were lapped more than once.

The coin has graffiti with the raised areas caused by metal displacement. If they were mint made on the die, there would be other examples.

Bill

dorkkarl

it's too bad, because that's a he11uva coin otherwise!

K S