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Why is there an M on this innovation dollar (fresh from mint bag)?
Tetromibi
Posts: 947 ✭✭✭✭✭
What is this?
2
Comments
Does the coin have edge lettering? If so, is there an M with the same size and font?
Dropped letter?
We'll see what the experts say.
Reverse photo plz.
@Batman23 yes, looks similar to the M in e Pluribus unum on edge lettering.
@ErrorsOnCoins see below.
From edge lettering
IMO, not a dropped letter from edge lettering as that doesn't make sense.
Perhaps, a small thin piece of some type of material that got struck thru by the edge lettering, then fell off and onto this planchet before it was struck. Best to see this coin in person.
Not a dropped letter
The edge of a coin pressed into the field.
The raised M is from the edge lettering being filled in like a die would be
My thought is the edge of one coin struck the face of this coin just right and the M was transferred over.
Interesting find no matter what.
Wayne
Kennedys are my quest...
M for manganese
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Interesting indeed.
The letter M from E PLURIBUS UNUM" on the edge lettering.
One in a million! Great post!
That is aMazing!
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
interesting, any others?
I found a dollar with a similar letter image but it was a "U" instead. I assumed it was a dropped letter, but I was told I was wrong, and it was produced post minting by the edge of another coin striking the one I found. I tried to recreate the image by tapping the "U" from the edge onto another dollar and every time the "U" would constrict and gave the transferred letter a thin font appearance. I would say the scenario presented by @ErrorsOnCoins is the most probable.
The coins are first struck, then are placed through an entirely different machine, a castaing machine, to impart the edge lettering. Only proofs are struck with a lettered collar. So, nothing could fall off of the edge and onto a die to be struck in because anything off the edge that falls would not have lettering.
I’ve seen this many times on the presidential dollars. Some sort of debris (metal or grease) fills a part of the edge lettering die and sticks there. After a while, that debris falls out of the edge lettering die and ends up landing on a blank planchet, which ultimately strikes the impression into it. In your case, a letter M.
I’ve never known a TPG company to slab this “error” but most likely wouldn’t be worth that cost. It’s a fairly common procedure, and many of these exist since 2007.
Definitely not a dropped letter in the normal sense of that description.
It is an interesting phenomenon.... Certainly is a letter M.... @1madman... If your theory is correct, will there be many coins with blank/filled letters on the edge? Seem they would have to be, if such 'filling' were to fall out at some point. Thoughts on this? Cheers, RickO
Have seen $20 Saints with letters incused into their fields from the raised edge lettering on other coins.
Ditto $10 Indians with stars. And millions of other coins with reeding marks.
Per a previous post by @MsMorrisine , the edge lettering process is done AFTER striking, so debris from that process wouldn't be struck into a planchet. Only proofs use a special lettered collar during striking. The smooth, business strike collar would disort or smear the edge lettering if it was added during a pre-strike step. Hope this helps