Micro Coin Characteristics Quiz#3
Insider2
Posts: 14,452 ✭✭✭✭✭
Sorry, no prizes 
I am going to be posting micrographs of anything that can be found on coins. Some will be easy and some will not. The correct answer is whatever I say it is 
but feel free to disagree (giving your reason) so all of us can discuss it. I will usually post the answers late the next day after the quiz was posted.
In order to make this FUN for beginners. I'll ask the "experts" to PLEASE not guess what any of the images are until the next day. Otherwise, folks like (fill in the blank) will get all of them immediately - That's NO FUN. If no correct answer is given by the next day, the "experts" should PLEASE respond.
Hopefully, members will follow these suggestions:
1.Anyone can guess. That's because even an incorrect guess can open further discussion as to why it is incorrect.
2.The BEST guess is in two parts:
A. What characteristic the image shows.
B. What did you see in the image that led to your guess.
Comments
PMD... displaced metal.... Cheers, RickO
Lamination?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Something was scraped or chiseled away. The abrupt end/line at the upper right is either the starting place or ending place depending on what tool and method were used. Scraping lines and apparent shallowness are visible.
Maybe it’s just me but those fine lines look raised which if so suggest some tooling or working of the die. ?
The push bar on the ejector of the coin press?
Looks similar to repairing a hole in the wall, use dry wall patching mix (putty) to fill the hole, and then smooth with a putty knife. Next step would be to paint the putty repair to match the rest of the wall.
In the case of the coin it stopped at the “smoothing” of the putty.
Looks like someone was trying to repair what looks like a die crack but did a lousy job at it? Just a guess,
So I'm seeing a die break under the damage. I say pmd damage was shaved off. Drum roll please...... Peace Roy
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I also see the anomaly that looks like a disguised die crack, and in fact it continues near the bottom of the photo through the large dot next to the A.
Why would someone want to remove a die crack, unless they were extremely inexperienced with coin collecting.
Or....perhaps it is a forgery and they wanted to minimize the defects in their product? Perhaps it is a contemporary counterfeit meant to circulate in its era?
strike through wood.
bob
Wouldn’t striking impact force obliterate a wood chip? If so I think the pattern would be less organized. I don’t know. These are fun. 👍
Not the die.
Is that a hint? Maybe a damaged and repaired (welded) hub?
I'm just taking shots in the dark now...
It is hard to ID stuff that you have not seen magnified. Several good guesses. Answer tomorrow afternoon.
@JBK said: "I'm just taking shots in the dark now...
Maybe a damaged and repaired (welded)hub?
If you are going to take shots in the dark, eventually you may get lucky and hit something; however, you will not learn anything from a "shot" unless you give a reason.
So, what does a "hub" look like? Is the design on a hub ...?
Of course - same image (orientation) as the coin. Crack in the hub = raised line on the die = incuse line on the coin.
But, I am sticking with my first impression of scraped coin, and if it was done to hide a die crack then I ay it is a forgery that was being "cleaned up".
I am not 100% sure from my screen if the "crack" under the scrape is raised or incuse. If it is an incuse "crack" then it is likely a defect in the mold used to case the coin. But it looks raised in the area that is not scraped so that implies die crack o a struck coin.
The "A" is raised. That is why the image cannot be a "hub." However, the characteristic may be a repair.
I never thought the pic was of a hub, but was speculating that the damage may have been on the hub. But that is a real stretch (I assume).
Someone started to whiz the coin but left whatever they were using in one spot too long. There are similar but very much smaller marks in the lower right of the picture but they go at a different angle than the larger central mark. Realizing they damaged the coin, they stopped, leaving what we see in the picture. Just my thoughts.
My War Nickels https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/nickels/jefferson-nickels-specialty-sets/jefferson-nickels-fs-basic-war-set-circulation-strikes-1942-1945/publishedset/94452
Looking away from the offending scrape....
Does the coin surface look "wrong" to anyone else? Seems to NOT be flow lines. Could be post minting corrosion? Or a cast fake?
That's all I got... ;P
I think it an attempt to hide a planchet flaw. But not very well done.
OINK
a small flat chisel type blade was used to remove a foreign substance?
This one is a little bit tricky. I picked an image of a counterfeit coin to show the characteristic.
A. What characteristic does the image show?
This is a wide tool mark INTO the coin (not the die where "tool marks" are commonly seen. The counterfeiter attempted to remove evidence of casting by smoothing out the depressed "crack-like" area. It is a terrible job and just draws attention to the defect by adding another problem.
B. What did you see in the image that led to your guess?
The surface is not original. Metal has been moved to leave a scrape. The sharp, raised lip at the end of the mark identifies the direction of the attempted repair. Wide shifts of metal as these are usually seen on ancients, Large cents, counterfeits, and genuine coins having repaired chops.