Can Someone Tell me About These Dimes?

cherrene

Hi, I work at a vending machine company and these have started showing up in the hoppers



the one on the right is a rose gold color

is this a counterfeit? some kind of chemical reaction? an error?

with the bad economy, and a lot of immigrants moving in, we have been getting a lot of strange coins.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help

ctf_error_coins

Welcome to the forum.

I think one is a very slight Misaligned Die, no extra value.

The other looks like a sintered planchet error and has extra value, (or) it's hard to tell from the photo is the second one missing the clad layer, which would be a nice error, (or) it's toned /stained with no extra value. Need better photos.

Always save any weird us coins that get kicked out.

cherrene

actually, I think that's my bad camera skills, the silver dime is regular size, I was using it as a color reference. I have twelve of the pinkish colored dimes, stacked with twelve of the silver dimes, they are not as thick but close to the same width.

I like coins that are messed up unintentionally...we get a lot that are ground up or cut up, but occassionally I see one that is stamped off center or something.. my boss will let me buy them for face value so I am going to start keeping them.

these are pretty, I may keep them.

cherrene

<< <i>Welcome to the forum.

I think one is a very slight Misaligned Die, no extra value.

The other looks like a sintered planchet error and has extra value, (or) it's hard to tell from the photo is the second one missing the clad layer, which would be a nice error, (or) it's toned /stained with no extra value. Need better photos.

Always save any weird us coins that get kicked out. >>



ok, I will give it another shot on the photos!

thank you!

stealer

I would guess that the rosy colored one is struck on an underweight planchet. Do you have an accurate scale? Try weighing the rosy one and a regular dime and let us know what they weigh!

Justlooking

Rosy Roosies, eh?

halfhunter

Working at a vending co., do you ever find any 90% silver dimes or quarters?
That's what I would be looking for!

HH

CaptHenway

Please try a couple more pictures. I can't really see what is going on with the coppery one.

One possibility is that one of your customers misused some sort of metal cleaner to clean a batch of copper and copper-nickel coins, and in doing so ended up giving a light copper wash to the copper-nickel coins. He or she then simply spent them in a machine.

Wabbit2313

Which company? Me too!

cherrene

<< <i>Working at a vending co., do you ever find any 90% silver dimes or quarters?
That's what I would be looking for!

HH >>



I deal with thousands of coins a day; and I am not sure how to tell the difference in the metals....I am not a collector really. I know we have one route driver that likes the half dollars so I do save those for him and sell them to him for face value. We don't have a lot of those anymore.

DaveG

Silver dimes and quarters were minted before 1965. If you look at the edge of the coin, you'll see all "white", not the copper layer you're used to.

With the price of silver today, silver dimes and quarters are worth somewhere around 18x - 20x face value.


(Note: depending on how sophisticated your vending machines are, they may be set to refuse silver coins.)

cherrene

ok, I tried taking another photo...is this any more helpful?

cherrene

now that I see them magnified, they look pitted, so maybe they were in some kind of acid?

jimbux61

<< <i>Working at a vending co., do you ever find any 90% silver dimes or quarters?
That's what I would be looking for!

HH >>



Most if not all modern vending machines will reject the silver coins.

cherrene

<< <i>

<< <i>Working at a vending co., do you ever find any 90% silver dimes or quarters?
That's what I would be looking for!

HH >>



Most if not all modern vending machines will reject the silver coins. >>



we have some modern and some *ahem* 'vintage' machines that still work fine that aren't too picky about what they take; they are the ones that usually have the weird foreign coins, plugs, pennies, and other debris in them.

CaptHenway

Much better reverse picture. Thank you.

Unfortunately, I am still stumped. It looks to be crudely copper plated, but not what you would get from the chemical bath I first hypothesized.

Question one: Are they all the same date and mint mark? If so, then contemporary counterfeit would be a possibility, though I can't believe that in this day and age anybody would be counterfeiting dimes. I only ask the question to eliminate the possibility.

Question two: can you get an accurate weight, either individually or for the entire lot of questionable pieces? Then we can divide by the number of pieces to get an average weight.

cherrene

<< <i>Much better reverse picture. Thank you.

Unfortunately, I am still stumped. It looks to be crudely copper plated, but not what you would get from the chemical bath I first hypothesized.

Question one: Are they all the same date and mint mark? If so, then contemporary counterfeit would be a possibility, though I can't believe that in this day and age anybody would be counterfeiting dimes. I only ask the question to eliminate the possibility.

Question two: can you get an accurate weight, either individually or for the entire lot of questionable pieces? Then we can divide by the number of pieces to get an average weight. >>



no, they are not the same date; but when they first showed up, they were all very shiny...these are the few that have recirculated back thru the machines and whereever else they have been. They are very distinctive so easy to spot in the hopper.

I don't have a scale, not sure where to get access to one...but individually, you can't tell the difference in size from these and regular dimes, if you stack three reg dimes together and three of these, these are noticably thinner.

do you think they are worth taking to a coin shop here in town?

edit to add: these are not copper colored (penny copper color), they are more of a rosey gold color, not like any American coin I have ever seen.

cherrene

<< <i>

<< <i>Working at a vending co., do you ever find any 90% silver dimes or quarters?
That's what I would be looking for!

HH >>



Most if not all modern vending machines will reject the silver coins. >>



I am curious about this...why would they be rejecting them? aren't they still legal tender for face value?

DaveG

My (limited) understanding is that the modern machines have more sophisticated discriminators and they're set to take post-1964 clad coinage, so they reject foreign coins, slugs, silver coins, etc. even if they're the right size and weight.

TwoSides2aCoin

That close-up seems porous. Like the Capt said... You've got to weigh it. You could mail one to me. I will do it for you if that offer hasn't been extended.

I'm always suspicious of counterfeiters. They can nickel and dime us to death.

cherrene

Thank you Twosides2acoin; check your mail

I appreciate everyone that has responded. I have never had such a warm welcome to any forum. Thanks to all of you.

TwoSides2aCoin

<< <i>Thank you Twosides2acoin; check your mail

I appreciate everyone that has responded. I have never had such a warm welcome to any forum. Thanks to all of you. >>



Welcome to the forums. You know I'm just going to forward it to CaptHenway after I look at it.
He gave me his address and always gives me his honest opinion.

kevinstang

My guess is the rose colored one was a metal detector find that someone cleaned up- clad is often a dirty dark red-brown after being in the ground, after a little cleaning they end up looking like that- and with the pitting too match.

JamesMurray

<< <i>My guess is the rose colored one was a metal detector find that someone cleaned up- clad is often a dirty dark red-brown after being in the ground, after a little cleaning they end up looking like that- and with the pitting too match. >>




That's a good call i think , i used to use an electrolysis machine with a solution of citric acid which is said to clean jewelry , coins etc ... it'll do just that to a coin if the solution is strong or its left too long in it.

CaptHenway

<< <i>

<< <i>Much better reverse picture. Thank you.

Unfortunately, I am still stumped. It looks to be crudely copper plated, but not what you would get from the chemical bath I first hypothesized.

Question one: Are they all the same date and mint mark? If so, then contemporary counterfeit would be a possibility, though I can't believe that in this day and age anybody would be counterfeiting dimes. I only ask the question to eliminate the possibility.

Question two: can you get an accurate weight, either individually or for the entire lot of questionable pieces? Then we can divide by the number of pieces to get an average weight. >>



no, they are not the same date; but when they first showed up, they were all very shiny...these are the few that have recirculated back thru the machines and whereever else they have been. They are very distinctive so easy to spot in the hopper.

I don't have a scale, not sure where to get access to one...but individually, you can't tell the difference in size from these and regular dimes, if you stack three reg dimes together and three of these, these are noticably thinner.

do you think they are worth taking to a coin shop here in town?

edit to add: these are not copper colored (penny copper color), they are more of a rosey gold color, not like any American coin I have ever seen. >>



Thank you for the additional information.

Perhaps it was some sort of acidic cleaning that both thinned the coins and discolored them. Is the bare copper on the edge, which is less resistant to corrosives than the copper-nickel alloy, hollowed out a bit?

TomB

Your larger images make them look similar to coinage that has been found at the beach or in the woods near pine trees. An acidic environment can strip away some of the outer plate. In other words, the coins might have been dug or simply found.

lcoopie

this is usually a very warm forum, you are right