Is this legal tender?

MrEureka

This is mint state and nearly paper thin. A very odd error. Definitely authentic, but is it legal tender?

tjkillian

Assuming it is a three cent piece, I will pay you the full face value, in silver, and thenyou can go and spend it.

Tom

Coindexter

I'd venture a guess that without a denomination clearly visible on the piece that it would not technically be legal tender. It is, however, one of the sweetest mint errors I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing.

rainbowroosie

How about 1000 times face value??? COOOOOL coin!!!

tmot99

That is very cool. I would venture to say non legal tender.

pursuitofliberty

WOW!!! Very cool and thanks for sharing!!

As previously mentioned, without a denomination or a near full planchet, probably not legal tender ... however ...

I would defiantely pay you 6% interest from 1875 until now

TAClough

Didn't the mint used to check new dies by pouring melted metal onto paper and then using just one die to see how it would strike?

Tim

relayer

More than 50% there - you should be able to spend it anywhere.

Conder101

Looks like the fragment part of a struck through fragment error. or possibly a lamination that has peeled off a coin. Is it legal tender? Probably not because it does not conform to the legal specifications set out in the Act of 1873 and the revissions that were enacted in 1874 and 1875. The government used to use that argument to confiscate mint errors and patterns so I think we could say that back in the late nineteenth early twentieth century they would not have considered it to be legal tender. You might try arguing that under tha Act of 1965 which made all coins struck by the US legal tender, but hen that would beg the question, "Do you consider this fragment to be a coin?".

MrEureka

Looks like the fragment part of a struck through fragment error. or possibly a lamination that has peeled off a coin.

I think we can be pretty sure it's a struck fragment, not a lamination. The shape of the "coin" is unlike any lamination I have seen. However, if you imagine how a bit of metal might spread as it is squashed between a planchet and a die, you can easily imagine how this "coin" came to be this shape.

And BTW, I wouldn't really consider this piece a coin, and I wouldn't consider it legal tender.

OffMetal

Wow!! That is a neat error!!

I would say that it isn't legal tender, but I'd give thousands of times face for it

Just curious, where'd you pick it up at?

Edited to add: I have to agree with Conder, this may be a lamination, or some thin scrap that is struck onto the obverse of a coin, and came off some time later.

anablep

So cool!

But not legal tender, IMO.

I don't even think 50% of the coin is really there, as one member mentioned.

Gemineye

NO.................no denomination....................

OffMetal

<< <i>NO.................no denomination.................... >>





Then this is legal tender

Gemineye

I remember seing it posted ..........What is it..........????????????

carl

Lets not guess. Take it to a bank and let them run it through their coin counter. If the counter takes it, it will also tell you how much it is worth. If not, you'll jam up thier machine so be ready to run for it.
Nice coin though.

mgoodm3

Great error.

michael

This is mint state and nearly paper thin. A very odd error. Definitely authentic, but is it legal tender?


no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but i would be happy to buy it from you andy for 300 dollars

OffMetal

<< <i>This is mint state and nearly paper thin. A very odd error. Definitely authentic, but is it legal tender?


no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but i would be happy to buy it from you andy for 300 dollars >>



WOW!! 10,000x Face!!

I would take it and run

tmot99

Andy, you would certainly know better than me, but I can't see how this fragment of metal caught between the die and planchet would give a reverse of what this does. How thick is this? Is the reverse raised, incuse, or flat like an elongated? I would expect a flat reverse (or close to it).

michael

for me a laminated planchet error where the planchet had a gross/severe lamination and was struck and then afterwords this lamination on the struck fell off leaving this piece of numismatic puzzlement

might i take this puzzle off of your hands andy for 300 beans??

Conder101

<< <i>I think we can be pretty sure it's a struck fragment, not a lamination. The shape of the "coin" is unlike any lamination I have seen. However, if you imagine how a bit of metal might spread as it is squashed between a planchet and a die, you can easily imagine how this "coin" came to be this shape >>


I would be likely to think it is a lamination, but probably one that peeled off of another coin (pre-strike) and then got betwee the die and a planchet. The key thing that tells me it is a lamination s the paper thinness. Where else would you get a paper thin sheet of metal except from a lamination from another planchet. (Ok, if it is silver possibly from the drawbench.) One side of the lamination would be smooth and the other slightly rough, but that slight roughmess would be smoothed out o a large extent by the smooth surfaces of the planchet and die that it got caught between.

In the case of a thicker fragment, i would NOT spread out and become thin like this piece is. The force of the sudden strike would force the fragment down into the second planchet. Think of what happens during an idented strike. The second planchet is't spread out thin. It is just impressed in to the surface of the other planchet. A strike through fragment would do the same thing. Even if it DID try to spread, since it is well centered on the portrait, why would it spread much beyond that. It would be easier to stay "thick" and just fill the portrait with just a little thin spreading beyond it. The result would be a thicker piece with thin edges. Your piece appears to be fairly uniform in thickness all the way across. No, this piece was paper thin before it was struck.