Quote: I have a wartime U.S. Cent planchet. Problem. Exactly the exactly the same planchet was used for the Belgian Two Cents, for roughly the same period.
So is mine Belgian or U.S.?
From what I understand, the leftover blanks were used to make the 2 Francs coin in 1944. The US government probably had a bunch laying around and thought that they would mint more of the steel cents. I guess the public at the time did not like them and felt like it was funny money or not real money (that's what my grandparents told me). In 1944 they decided to switch back to copper. This would make sense since the Belgium 2 Franc coins had a mintage of 25,000,000. That's a lot of blanks laying around to go to waste
Not surprising at all that someone could have that many, blank unstruck cent planchets are likely the single most common error type for US coins. In past years, the largest source of blank unstruck planchets has been from $50 US Mint canvas bags.
Edit: Yes, the term "blank planchet" is a bit redundant and confusing
Remember not to confuse a "blank" with a "blank planchet" Blanks are a lot rarer to find then planchets. Step #1 - Blank punch (from stock) equals a blank Step #2 - Blank upset equals a planchet The blank goes through what they call an upsetting mill or machine to get the raised edging put on it. Then it's off to the punch. I have found only a couple of cent copper blanks but more planchets in both copper and zinc.
The only workers being at the mint would be the drivers and they are only picking up packaged goods so I doubt they get any at all. Eyes are everywhere now anyway. The mints newer practices are also eliminating most errors getting out in the first place.
Quote: I'm with John1....I've found exactly one in half a million cents searched. If they are "super" common, I'd like to know where Errorcoins came up with that information.
Well at 1 planchet per half million cents that would be two per million or 2,000 per billion. Now I'm still using a 2006 RedBook but in 2004 they struck 3.8 billion cents so that would mean 7,600 planchets released in 2004. Or if we take that mintage as an average year (which it isn't, it's low) Then from 1983 to 2004 that comes to 160,000 zinc cent planchets released. Sounds common to me.
Kind of funny at the end where they say you'll need to dig deep to buy one, if you don't buy them right away. Sounds like a plug for the US Mint to increase demand on them.
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Posted 02/23/2012 10:29 am
