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Canada 1982 Constitution dollar error mystery

This is my series and I know it quite intimately. I have some spectacular errors in this series, and I usually have no issue figuring out any errors I encounter (I am also a Canadian error collector). This one, however, has me stumped...

This little mystery came out of a paper-wrapped mint roll, and it has me scratching my head. This is not struck through bronze/copper fragments, this is not plated, and it does not come off with acetone or toluene... The reverse is spectacular, as portions of it shine like a newly struck bronze cent...

I have no idea what I am seeing here... almost looks like a copper wash (I assume the theory is that in the rinse bath, copper ions are preferentially liberated from previously washed 1c planchets, and then re-deposited on planchets of other coins when the solution becomes saturated).

Or, is this a sintered coin (Sintering is caused by the small dust-sized copper or other metal that are removed from the planchets or the drum they spin in, it then sticks to the planchet and then is annealed to soften the planchet before striking. The annealing step bakes the sintering on - I have seen this on Canadian 10c error coins).

Anyone here able to provide some insight, and why both sides have much different degrees of "copper" finish? I'd like to know what this is, and decide if I am going to add it to my PCGS showcase set of Canadian nickel dollar errors.


"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer

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Comments

  • SPPSPP Posts: 34 ✭✭✭
    edited March 15, 2019 6:16PM

    Another photo, with different lighting...

    "Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer

    Content of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0
  • JBKJBK Posts: 14,637 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 21, 2022 1:10AM

    @SPP said:
    (I am also a Canadian error collector).

    Are you a Canadian who collects error coins or a collector of Canadian errors? :D

    Or are you a Canadian Canadian error collector?

    If you did not say you found it in a new roll I would not think much of it.

    @errorsoncoins or @FredWeinberg
    might know.

    If no answer here you could try to sneak it onto the US Coin forum.

  • sylsyl Posts: 888 ✭✭✭

    SPP is the guru up here for Canadian nickel dollars and all denominations of error coins in general. He has gone through, literally, tens of thousands of dollars from mint bags and rolls.

  • SPPSPP Posts: 34 ✭✭✭

    I am a Canadian, Canadian error collector, but I only collect small cent errors and nickel dollar errors. I also validate and describe errors for several Canadian auction companies and dealers. Canadian nickel dollars are very low mintage, obsolete coinage, with relatively few errors out there...

    https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/errors/spp-canada-small-cent-striking-errors/2501

    https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/errors/spp-canada-small-cent-off-metal-errors/1855

    https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/errors/spp-canada-nickel-dollar-errors/1621

    "Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer

    Content of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0
  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 23,896 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It may have been buried for a short time, recovered and cleaned with a chemical such as is found in a product like Kaboom. There was also another cleaning product, made in Australia if I recall correctly, that is no longer made that would also cause this surface effect. It may then have been put back into circulation.

    All glory is fleeting.
  • SPPSPP Posts: 34 ✭✭✭

    @291fifth said:
    It may have been buried for a short time, recovered and cleaned with a chemical such as is found in a product like Kaboom. There was also another cleaning product, made in Australia if I recall correctly, that is no longer made that would also cause this surface effect. It may then have been put back into circulation.

    So, obviously, you never read my initial post, especially the part that I said that it "came out of a paper-wrapped mint roll"...

    This is how they were issued from the Royal Canadian Mint, by the way:

    "Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer

    Content of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0
  • SPPSPP Posts: 34 ✭✭✭

    Earlier this year, I decided to send this one in, and it was what I suspected it to be:

    https://www.pcgs.com/cert/43870507

    "Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer

    Content of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0
  • 1960NYGiants1960NYGiants Posts: 3,442 ✭✭✭✭

    @SPP - it's nice to have it confirmed. Did you run it across your XRF? What were the results?

    Gene

    Life member #369 of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
    Member of Canadian Association of Token Collectors

    Collector of:
    Canadian coins and pre-confederation tokens
    Darkside proof/mint sets dated 1960
    My Ebay
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