Looking for information on blank planchets and clips
Kaelasdad
Posts: 1,232 ✭✭✭
I just bought a collection, and included in it were quite a few blank planchets from cents to Ikes, as well as additional blanks that had clips, curved, straight, ragged, single, doubles, triples. This is an area I know nothing about--anyone here collect these and have any idea what I should do with them?
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<< <i>Oh, Sean!!!!!!! >>
WHAT!?!? Did someone say clips!@??!?@?
What you should do is send them to me. Kidding, you need to make sure they are legitimate, and the best way to do that is to look at the edges. Most of the time clipped blanks are not blanks at all but unstruck planchets, the important difference being they have gone thru the upsetting mill and have a proto-rim. In English, this means that you should be able to see a faint rim on the unstruck planchets and Blakesley effect across from the clips.
To positively attribute the clips. on the clad planchets look at the rim inside the clip and you should see something called "clad layer inversion." Again in layman's terms, means the clad and copper core layers of the sandwich don't line up with the rest of the rim (this is a product of how the planchets are punched, and a very reliable diagnostic). On the copper planchets, inside the rim you should see a definite transition from cutting to tearing, this is often referred to as a "belly line" as it looks like a line running parallel to the faces of the planchet. You can also weigh them and see if they are within normal tolerances (factoring in the missing metal for the clipped planchets). If you don't see some of these diagnostics, you might not have coinage blanks at all but worthless metal discs.
Once you are confident they are real, your best venue to sell them is either the BST here or eBay. There's really no need to get blanks or unstruck planchets certified unless they are rare or unusual (for example, if any of those Ike planchets are 40% silver). There are collectors of unstruck planchets by type, just as there are collectors of Mint errors who will find the clipped blanks appealing. In fact, you may be pleasantly surprised at what they can realize.
Feel free to ask me any questions, I can even help attribute some of these if you can take good pictures. Congrats on the purchase and your good furtune.
Sean Reynolds
"Keep in mind that most of what passes as numismatic information is no more than tested opinion at best, and marketing blather at worst. However, I try to choose my words carefully, since I know that you guys are always watching." - Joe O'Connor
Included in the purchase were a few interesting off metal pieces--a cent on a silver dime planchet, an off center nickel on a copper cent planchet, a silver kennedy on silver quarter planchet, a quarter on a copper cent planchet, pretty cool looking , 14 different ones in all--I like the cent on the silver dime the most.
Modern cent/nickel/clad dime/clad quarter planchets are basically worthless. Figure far less than $10 each under the most ideal circumstances. I sold a bunch at a show a few months ago and I was happy to get $2-3 each for everything but the cents. I couldn't even get $1 for the cents.
Clad halves are more,maybe $10-$30. Ikes are even better, $50+ for Type II and $100+ for type I.
Silver dimes, quarters, and halves are rarer but still have surprisingly low prices. Figure $10-$20 for 90% dimes, up to maybe $30-$60 for 90% halves.
Type II 40% silver halves are also surprisingly common, maybe in the $30-$60 range. Type I 40% halves are much rarer.
Steel cent planchets are maybe $10-$30. Large cent blank planchets are $100-$200.
Any older type not listed above ranges from rare to very rare (unless I forgot something). I'd love to hear if you have any pieces besides those.
The off-metal pieces range from several hundred to several thousand dollars, with price roughly related to size and "gee that's cool"-ness. Heritage has sold a couple dozen nickels off-center on cent planchets for prices from $600-$1500, with a similar price range for Kennedys on silver quarter planchets.
I don't know values for clipped planchets, sorry. Sean would know those a lot better than I would.