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1971-D 40% silver error half dollar found
CaptHenway
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Coin World Online has a story about a dealer finding a 1971-D half dollar struck on a 40% silver planchet. The coin was found in a batch of loose half dollars.
It has been certified by ANACS, using weight and specific gravity to verify the content. The grade is AU.
Kewl!
It has been certified by ANACS, using weight and specific gravity to verify the content. The grade is AU.
Kewl!
Professional Numismatist, Retired. 55 year member ANA. Former ANA Senior Authenticator. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and ANA Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner of the PNG's 2026 Robert Friedberg Award for "The Enigmatic Lincoln Cents of 1922," Available now from Whitman or Amazon.
11
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I'm sure they've been rumored to exist for many years.
way cool
Not really looking for much these days but if I were, it might be a toner.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>I knew about the 77-D's, but not the 71-D. Still, a quick search brings up this one sold for 6K by Heritage in 2003. Not sure if there are any others. >>
Nice. How many 71-D 40% silver halves are there now?
<< <i>Coin World link? >>
Right now it is on their pay-to-view subscription site. Eventually they will repost it online.
"Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
http://www.american-legacy-coins.com
It seems like San Francisco would bundle up all their junk and ship it to Denver, in case they could use some of it. There are many examples of reuse of this stuff. This includes proof planchets for Ike dollars, the 1970 D dime stock quarters punched from SF too thin strip and the 1969 D -1970 D type B like type H quarter dies that match the proof reverse of those years.
<< <i>So in effect, some of the planchets intended for the 1970 Mint sets were left over and not destroyed, and they got purely accidentally <wink emoticon> dumped into a hopper being set up for 1971 JFK's at Denver. And then the same mistake was made in 1977 at Denver with 1976 40% planchets that were left over from the SanFrancisco Mint. Got it.
It can happen. When I was at ANACS and we used to take the SUmmer Seminar students on the working floor of the Denver Mint I once went over to where a bunch of empty hoppers were lined up against the wall waiting to be used. I looked down in them and the fifth one had a planchet stuck in the trap door at the bottom.
<< <i>It could also be interpreted as a 1971-D half dollar struck on a contemporary Panama 1/2 balboa planchet. The latter were struck on identical silver-clad planchets from 1966-1972. While the Panama 1/2 balboas were struck in San Francisco, it's possible that some or all of the planchets were shipped over from Denver. One such planchet could have gotten mixed in with a batch of Cu-Ni clad half dollar planchets. >>
Well, it is possible that Denver might have shipped leftover 40% silver planchets TO San Francisco after they stopped making the 1970-D halves, but this piece was struck in Denver in 1971.
Both Denver and SF began striking cu-ni clad halves in 1971, but I doubt that SF would have accumulated enough spoiled cu-ni clad proof planchets by the end of 1971 to bother shipping them to Denver to be coined as circulation strikes, with a leftover 1970-S Proof planchet included in the mix. Occam's Razor says the simplest explanation is that a 40% planchet stayed in the Denver Mint from 1970 to 1971 and got struck in 1971.
TD
<< <i>
<< <i>It could also be interpreted as a 1971-D half dollar struck on a contemporary Panama 1/2 balboa planchet. The latter were struck on identical silver-clad planchets from 1966-1972. While the Panama 1/2 balboas were struck in San Francisco, it's possible that some or all of the planchets were shipped over from Denver. One such planchet could have gotten mixed in with a batch of Cu-Ni clad half dollar planchets. >>
Well, it is possible that Denver might have shipped leftover 40% silver planchets TO San Francisco after they stopped making the 1970-D halves, but this piece was struck in Denver in 1971.
Both Denver and SF began striking cu-ni clad halves in 1971, but I doubt that SF would have accumulated enough spoiled cu-ni clad proof planchets by the end of 1971 to bother shipping them to Denver to be coined as circulation strikes, with a leftover 1970-S Proof planchet included in the mix. Occam's Razor says the simplest explanation is that a 40% planchet stayed in the Denver Mint from 1970 to 1971 and got struck in 1971. >>
It seems that San Francisco DID ship some planchets to Denver, at least once.
Otherwise, there would have been no way for the D-mint 40% silver IKE dollar errors to have been produced (Denver never minted 40% silver IKE dollars intentionally, but some are known dated 1974-D and 1977-D).
Basically what we're arguing about is intent, which is something that cannot be known.
This 1971-D silver-clad half dollar puts me in mind of the 1971-D quarter design struck off-center on a straight clipped silver-clad quarter-sized planchet punched out of silver-clad half dollar stock rolled to quarter thickness.
It's cool that the 1971-D silver-clad half dollar does that for you. For me, I think I'd have to smoke something to get there.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>
<< <i>Coin World link? >>
Right now it is on their pay-to-view subscription site. Eventually they will repost it online. >>
Give this link a shot if you've ever had Coin World open on your device: Coin World
http://editions.amospublishing.com/wdcn/default.aspx?d=20130422&pagenum=66&s=wrong stock
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>It could also be interpreted as a 1971-D half dollar struck on a contemporary Panama 1/2 balboa planchet. The latter were struck on identical silver-clad planchets from 1966-1972. While the Panama 1/2 balboas were struck in San Francisco, it's possible that some or all of the planchets were shipped over from Denver. One such planchet could have gotten mixed in with a batch of Cu-Ni clad half dollar planchets. >>
Well, it is possible that Denver might have shipped leftover 40% silver planchets TO San Francisco after they stopped making the 1970-D halves, but this piece was struck in Denver in 1971.
Both Denver and SF began striking cu-ni clad halves in 1971, but I doubt that SF would have accumulated enough spoiled cu-ni clad proof planchets by the end of 1971 to bother shipping them to Denver to be coined as circulation strikes, with a leftover 1970-S Proof planchet included in the mix. Occam's Razor says the simplest explanation is that a 40% planchet stayed in the Denver Mint from 1970 to 1971 and got struck in 1971. >>
It seems that San Francisco DID ship some planchets to Denver, at least once.
Otherwise, there would have been no way for the D-mint 40% silver IKE dollar errors to have been produced (Denver never minted 40% silver IKE dollars intentionally, but some are known dated 1974-D and 1977-D). >>
Of course. I wrote about that when I wrote up the 40% silver D-mint Ikes for Coin World back in the 1970's. The Mint even told us how they had accumulated barrels of reject proof planchets of all denominations (sorted by denomination, of course) until they had enough barrels to fill up a semi trailer and send it from SF to Denver.
My point with the above was that the SFAO did not begin striking cu-ni clad half dollar proofs until 1971, and it would seem unlikely (but not impossible) that they would have accumulated enough reject proof half dollar planchets to bother to ship, along with at least two stray 40% silver half dollar planchets, to Denver before the end of 1971 so that the 40% silver planchets could be struck as 1971-D coins.
The SFAO did not begin striking cu-ni clad Ikes until 1973. My gut feeling is that the Ike Proof planchets, because of their size, would have had a higher reject rate than half dollar planchets. However, the 40% silver Ike rejects mixed in with the cu-ni clad Ike rejects did not get struck until 1974.
Looks like mine. Just more worn than mine
Now that's a cool find. Something else to look for I guess. Thanks for sharing.
theres some fresh news for ya. i like to hear stuff like that
Thanks for sharing information
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Would it be worth more than a copper colored war cent because it is bigger?
Nobody is showing or talking about the reeds. Do the reeds show copper or not?
"Jesus died for you and for me, Thank you,Jesus"!!!
--- If it should happen I die and leave this world and you want to remember me. Please only remember my opening Sig Line.both a clad Copper-Nickel 1971-D and a 40% silver 1971-D have a middle copper layer
the 40% half has 90% silver in two layers over a 100% copper center, thus making the net 40%.
a 40%'er would also ring test. any manic roll searcher knows the sound. however, a specific gravity test is required for an error item like this. I'd just not get excited until a 1971-D passes the ring test, but then I'd test the specific gravity to be sure.
The 40% silver halves and Ike dollars have outer layers of 80% silver/ 20% copper and an inner core of 21% silver/ 79% copper. When new the low-grade cores look like coin silver, but they quickly tone to either a pale red (on uncirculated or Proof coins) or a dark brown on well-circulated coins.
Cool find, I always find errors like this very interesting; more so than striking errors.
But that's just me.
Thank for correcting me Cap'n!
I guess I better check my 'hoard' of halves again....hmmmm when is the next big snow day.....
Cheers, RickO
I searched through 6 rolls of halves yesterday. Now, my scale isn't terribly accurate (it only displays 10ths of a gram) but, I weighed my 71 and 77, and 2 71 and one 77 came out weighing 11.4 on it rather than the 11.2 or 11.3 the rest did. One was a 71D, one a 71 plain, and another was a 77 plain. As far as I can tell, only the 71D and 77D are known, not the plain. Is it possibly I've discovered a second heretofore unknown transitional error planchet strike within the Philly mint for those same years? I also found a 68 in that same hunt that I know is 40% silver, and it weighs the same on that scale as all 3 of them.
I would think you could tell by looking at them.....especially the edge.
One thing I noticed is that both examples shown in this thread are poorly struck. I don't know what that means, maybe they were sent to Denver as bad planchet stock?
Unlikely, but so are the coins.............................
Pete
I doubt that they are on 40% silver planchets.
There is only a slight difference in weight between
clad and 40% silver, and there is a tolerance factor.
Anything is possible, but most things like this are improbable.
That's pretty cool
What you need is a specific gravity test.
I think you would need an X-Ray spectroscopy test and one that can test well below the surface. It seems it would be too easy to silver-plate a CN coin. The edge could be masked so the copper center would still show.
Plated silver would likely be of variance and purity (higher percentage).
Well, just Love coins, period.
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SPECIFIC GRAVITY!!!!!!!