2011 Clipped Olympic Coin

I have a few clipped coins, including a 1971 2p. Here are some photos to show you what to look for.

Overall view:





The clip is by the "CE" of pence. You will see a weakening of the edge almost directly opposite, just below the "N" of "NEW". This is the Blakesley effect.



Not all my clipped coins have this effect, and those that do are not all as clear as this. What they DO all have is a slight weakening of the design just by the clip.

For example, see this photo:



You will notice that the edge dots just before the clip lose some definition.

I think this is caused by the metal not flowing completely into the die when it is struck. On a complete flan the metal presses fully into the die giving perfect definition. Here there is a gap to the side, and the metal flows slightly into the hole instead of fully filling the die. Some Forum experts might be able to describe this better than I can.

I suppose it might be possible to forge a clipped coin after minting by using some croppers. But cropping the coin would not produce the Blakesley effect, nor would it cause the slight loss of definition seen in the close-up. These two effects show this coin was clipped during minting.

Does your 50p show either of these effects?

I think it's possible to fake.
There was a discussion about it in the Australian forums not long ago: you could cut/file the coin, smooth the wound and use a small hammer to apply some other features.

Check for fish-tailing on the letters too. It's hard to tell from the photos but the D may be fish-tailed.
Maybe check on ebay/similar sites and see what other British clipped planchets are going for.

Just looked into this a bit, found in sold items a standard non olympic 50p, with a slight piece missing, much smaller than this. It sold for £10 plus postage. Then there is a swimming olympic coin, which got withdrawn, but they claimed the last misprinted olympic swimimng coin sold for £400, I couldnt verify this however.

So not really any wiser :/

@xhale2007

Probably yes.

I know what I would be prepared to pay for a genuine 50p error coin, but don't know what the market will stand.

Ordinary olympic 50p coins can still be found circulating in change, although they seem to be disappearing now. Uncirculated ones until recently I saw adverstised still in their packaging aroung the £3 mark.

If this is a genuine clipped coin, it may be worth putting it on ebay around that as a start value and see how it goes.