Rare error type -- overlapping clips
jonathanb
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For the error fans out there, a pair of coins of a very rare error type -- not just multiple clips, but multiple clips that overlap.
A 1967 quarter with quadruple clips, overlapping in two pairs. The individual clips are small on this coin, but you can't help think about the planchets that would have been punched from where the clips are. They would have had almost 80% clips themselves!
An undated (copper) Lincoln with a huge clip overlapping a smaller one:
jonathan
A 1967 quarter with quadruple clips, overlapping in two pairs. The individual clips are small on this coin, but you can't help think about the planchets that would have been punched from where the clips are. They would have had almost 80% clips themselves!
An undated (copper) Lincoln with a huge clip overlapping a smaller one:
jonathan
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Have you ever used a hole punch to punch holes in a piece of paper? Picture doing that normally. The little white circle that falls to the floor is analogous to a blank planchet. Now do it again, but instead of punching a hole in a new area of the paper, punch it so that it overlaps the first hole. The little white circle that falls to the floor this time won't be a circle -- it'll have a nibble out of it, depending on how much you overlapped with the first hole.
The mint does the same thing with huge sheets of metal.
There are a variety of ways to tell authenticity. One of the most common is known as the Blakesley effect. If you look at the quarter especially, you should be able to see that the design just within the clip is weaker than normal. This is caused by the metal adjacent to the clip flowing into the space left by the clip during the striking process. If someone were to take a chunk out of a coin after it was struck, the design would be sharp right up to the razor edge of the post-mint cut.
FWIW, even though I said that overlapping clips are very rare (which they are), this is one care where rarity doesn't translate to a high price. I paid $40 for the quarter and $20 for the cent, which I just noticed happens to work out to about $10 per clip for both coins.
If you are interested in learning more about the minting process, check out The Error Coin Encyclopedia by Margolis, or The Official Price Guide to Errors and Varieties, by Herbert. They're probably on Amazon, but I didn't check.
DickyBetz:
Actually, my icon coin is there so that people will ask, so no, I don't mind at all.
That is a Lexington, MA, centennial medal, produced at the mint in 1875 to commemorate the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775 (Paul Revere's Ride, The Shot Heard 'Round the World, etc). It's cataloged as a mint medal as Julian CM-24, and as a So-Called Dollar as HK-1004. That particular one is the gold version, with 3 or 4 minted depending on whether you believe Hibler-Kappen or Julian. Of those 3 or 4, there are currently 2 known. I'd dearly love to find the missing 1 or 2, even just to know where they are if they're not for sale. Silver, copper, and white metal versions also exist, with rarity decreasing in that order.
I grew up in Lexington and I'm an eager buyer of most anything related to the town (with a couple of exceptions like the regular 1925 commemorative, which is just way too plentiful). There's a lot of exonumia and other ephemera out there, often in the strangest places. Lots of visitors went home with souvenirs of all sorts over the past couple of centuries.
Thanks for asking!
jonathan
<< <i>Do you have bigger pics? I would like to see them. It looks really nice in your icon. >>
I snarfed that image from a Bowers and Merena auction a couple of years ago, where they sold a set of three: gold silver copper. They have more writeup of this history linked from the first of those lots.
Lots of big (and bigger) pictures there, plus a video clip even.
jonathan
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which reduce the diameter and push up a little extra metal around the edge of the
coin. This extra metal helps to strike up the rim which is important for the coins to
stack.
Incomplete planchets will not have the metal pushed up opposite the clip because
there was nothing for the rollers to push against. Normally clipped planchet coins
will have a very weak rim exactly opposite their clip"s".
The quarter above does look like would be expected and is no doubt genuine. The
cent does not show this effect and I'd be a little more leary of it. Some of the experts
here have said the rim isn't always weak opposite a clip but I've yet to see this.
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>Cladking, I have seen examples of (1 or 2) of clipped coins that don't exhibit the 'B' effect. Way too far and few between. Genuine clips but no meaniful explanation as to why. Concerning the quarter, when dual clips oppose each other at opposite sides of a planchet, there will be no metal to 'flatten out' when the blank is run through the upsetting mill since the lack of pressure is equal on both rims where the clips occured. >>
Perhaps I'm looking at the quarter wrong.
It appears to me to have two clips on one side and an incomplete rim opposite.
<< <i>This type of error looks easy to fake. The only way to really authenticate a clip is to look for the Blakesly effect which I don't see on either coin. >>
Wrong ...... that is not the ONLY way to authenticate a clip. It is one of the best ways but not the only way.
<< <i>
<< <i>This type of error looks easy to fake. The only way to really authenticate a clip is to look for the Blakesly effect which I don't see on either coin. >>
Wrong ...... that is not the ONLY way to authenticate a clip. It is one of the best ways but not the only way. >>
I agree. With a large clip like this, how can you explain such a strong well struck rim opposte the clip?
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
a) That my pictures are good enough to be able to tell what's really going on
b) That the cent doesn't exhibit a Blakesley effect
c) That the presence of a Blakesley effect is the only way to authenticate a clip
(and maybe others)
First, some negative evidence...
It's really hard to cut a smooth curve by hand in a tiny piece of metal like a coin. Most fake clips are straight clips. Most curved clips that are fakes have the radius of curvature totally unreasonable for the host coin. Someone was peddling a whole bunch of hideously fake "clips" of that latter sort a few months ago on eBay. In that case, he had large coins like Ikes with really spectacular clips in the 30-40% range, but the curvature of the clips was way too shallow (and he had like a 3 feedback, but that's only confirmation). For a real curved clip on a cent, you should be able to put another cent in the "hole" and have it fit nicely. There are exceptions, but it's reassuring when things do fit. The clip needs to be a decent size to do this, though. The smaller clip on the cent here really isn't large enough to say much of anything about its curvature.
Also, the date is gone. If someone was going to fake something, chances are they'd leave the date.
And although you can't really tell from the pictures, the toning is consistent across both faces of the coin, and both the clipped edge and the struck edge. If someone did mess with the coin, they didn't do it recently.
None of those are proof of anything, but they're good things to keep in mind.
Now, let's get a bigger picture to look at:
When considering the Blakesley effect, you have to keep in mind that it's a relative weakening of the rim opposite to the clip, and that it's roughly the same size as the clip itself. In this case, the two clips combine to take up almost the entire width of the coin. The Blakesley effect, if it was present, would be just as big. In fact, it is present on this coin. Right under the tip of the bust, the rim is of normal height. Under the L in LIBERTY, it's shrunk down so that it's almost flush with the surface of the coin. You can sort of make that out on the photo, but I agree it's not terribly obvious. I'm not even going to try to take the sort of edge-on pictures that would be needed to show it convincingly, but it's there.
Heritage sold a quarter with a 25% clip that shows the same effect a little more clearly because the clip area is smaller and the unaffected portion of the rim is larger. Another Lincoln at Heritage with a 50% clip shows a rim that's very similar to the one on this coin, overall.
Another good thing to look at, as I mentioned, is the metal flow towards the clip. In particular, look at the rim on the reverse under the C in CENT. As it approaches the clip, it sort of "fades out". That's exactly what's supposed to happen.
Finally, it's good to look at the edge:
When blanks are punched from the sheet metal strip, they are both cut and torn from the larger sheet. Part of the edge should be smooth-ish, while the other part should be rougher. You can see that on the edge-on view. This coin has the rougher part of the clipped edge adjacent to the obverse side of the struck coin, and the smoother part adjacent to the reverse.
On clad coinage, yet another excellent test is to look at the cladding. On real clips, the copper core is not aligned with the core adjacent to the clip area. There's a technical term (and explanation) for this, but I'm afraid I forget both. You can clearly see this on the edge view of the quarter, where the copper core within the clipped area is drastically shifted towards the obverse side of the coin. Obviously, this diagnostic is only helpful for clad coinage...
So... I think it's real.
jonathan
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
Every day I get up, go to work and struggle to make an honest decent living.
One of these days, boys one of these days.......................
I'll be helping out the collectors with their "error" coins.
Easy money here I come.
Ray