Jefferson error

Blackhawk

I had this one graded recently and the results leave me with more questions than answers. It's obvious that it's been struck on a straight clip planchet...but what kind of planchet. The coin is in a holder meant for a US quarter and fits nicely, but the planchet is not reeded. The planchet seems a bit thinner than a US nickel planchet and if it is on a nickel planchet, how can the planchet having the same basic radius of a quarter be explained. I'm not even going to mention that the grade seems to be a bit too conservative. Any ideas?

eyoung429

Have no clue.....but that's one hella cool error!!!

Aegis3

<< <i>I had this one graded recently and the results leave me with more questions than answers. It's obvious that it's been struck on a straight clip planchet...but what kind of planchet. The coin is in a holder meant for a US quarter and fits nicely, but the planchet is not reeded. The planchet seems a bit thinner than a US nickel planchet and if it is on a nickel planchet, how can the planchet having the same basic radius of a quarter be explained. I'm not even going to mention that the grade seems to be a bit too conservative. Any ideas? >>



First, since it is struck off center and thus out of collar, whatever collar would be present would not impart anything. So even it it was a clipped quarter blank (I think it is a clipped nickel blank), reeding would not be present. Now, about the thickness. First, I would be careful about deciding what the thickness of a slabbed coin is; that is a drawback to slabs. In addition, the struck portion of off center coins are often thinner then normal coins; someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but this is likely due to the fact that metal in an off-center coin when struck has an unimpeded path to flow (outwards) thus allowing the dies to still travel towards each other (for a little bit).

As to the radius of the coin, you would want to check the unstruck round portion to determine the radius; you may be able to use photoshop or something to figure out what best fits this segment; note however that it is of a smaller diameter than the holder. And remember that the greatest width will be in the direction of the off-center strike, thus explaining why this will likely be greater than the diameter of a normal nickel.

If you really want to figure out what the planchet is (it does look like a standard clipped nickel blank to me), a specific gravity test would be the way to go to at least get a good idea. (Everything else would likely be to expensive to bother with for the coin. And of course, check the edge. I'm sure it's not clad, right?

Finally, the grade. It's uncirculated, and that's enough said. Numerical grading is just not really applicable to most striking errors, even if numerical grading in general is meaningful.

GoldenEyeNumismatics

if a coin is struck out of collar is with smush beyond standard mint proprtions, resulting in a coin of a larger size than normal

LALASD4

Off centered on a straight clipped nickel planchet.

That is what it is, I have seen a lot larger.

Cam40

any idea of the date and mint mark?

errormaven

Since the planchet was not confined by the collar, it was free to expand when struck. Therefore, you would expect it to be larger and thinner than a normal nickel. The diagnosis printed on the slab label is correct.

As for grading, I agree it was grossly undergraded. But that's not unusual. Grossly overgraded and undergraded errors are common when it comes to errors. The same standards should apply to them as to any regular coin.