What Is Lamination On A Coin? How Is That Different Than A Struck Through Debris?

What is lamination on a coin? How is that different than a struck through debris?

This was posted a while back from Pete2226

But a lamination issue is when the hot rolled stock is being rolled to the same thickness. As each pass happens it cools a bit more. Any pieces of copper that get rolled into the stock material as the metal cools will not be part of the hot metal, but rolled onto the metal. I refer this as cold rolling. They will be rolled into the same size of the hot rolled stock and usually are long is shape with each pass of the roller. Some can be larger, and some smaller, but they are stuck on the hot rolled metal not part of the hot roll stock. Why is this needed to know? Because the cold roll parts will not always adhere to the hot rolled metal. Sure they are flat and stick onto the roll stock. But when the blanks are cut from the roll, any edges of the lamination can peel off the coin then during the blanking process. Or in step two when coin into the upset process, this can loosen the lamination. If this occurs before the strike/after the strike, the blanks/planchets will be under weight. Sometimes it will be thinner on that area. So if they were struck without the lamination, the strike would be a pre-strike lamination.


If the lamination happens after the strike, areas of the design may be missing. or peeled off of the coin. These are the more common examples. On a lamination the more missing/still attached are the more looked for examples.
Missing Laminations:


Peeling Laminations:









Valuable Laminations:

This one sold for five figures. (The most I've heard of for one like this one)

You might wonder how a cent get cracked. Well if was probably a split off of the a lamination that loosen after the strike. Called a clamshell because of the look on the edge of the coin.

Stronger Laminations with ghost images:













Folded Laminations:



Cladding Folded/Loosened:





Most laminations don't have a high premium, but the more interesting they are the more they will probably bring. Keep in mind these will be show a loss of weight after they go their separate ways. But how is a lamination different from a lamination loss?


They will look similar to the laminations. But clue they are different is that they will be slightly increased in weight. If the wrap over the edge of the coin, they would be a struck through debris on to a host coin. These will show the outline of the shape it was struck through:


Note the shape and thickness removes the ghost image that it was struck over as it prevented the strike. If thin enough it might not be detected, on this coin what ever it was struck through that thicker and thinner in different areas. Laminations tend to stretch with the rolled stock and will be longer. This one was a the shape that we see on the coin.





Still on the coin. Note that if was not in the shape of a normal lamination.

So why don't we see laminations on zinc cents? Because they are a one element, not mixed with anything. So they are shaped in the stock material without contaminants. They are later plated after cut and setup:

So hopefully this all correct. Always something new on the horizon that we don't even suspect yet. Enjoy.