Is This Ike A Legit Clipped Planchet?

Wow! If it is it's big bucks! There are people that know more about this than I, but something I don't see is "the Blakesley Effect", which is a softly struck area on the rim opposite the clip. But, there are times the effect does not show on coins that are well struck, and to strike an Ike requires an incredible amount of pressure. Therefore, not seeing the effect with this type coin does not necessarily mean it's not genuine. I'm looking forward to others with more knowledge than me chiming in.

Yeah I see that little one on the edge by the Y in Liberty. I just rather others vouched for this.

The small clip is genuine. The large one is questionable.

I'd like to see a close-up of the devices near the clip on the reverse especially. The olive leaves and letters look distorted from here, but I'd like a closer look.

I suspect that the large clip is manufactured, someone wanted to make a coin with a very small clip appear to be more desirable. Notice that the edge and rim is tapered at the small clip but the large one ends abruptly. You should see significant die flow on Ike's head, ON...AR, and the olive branch but I am not seeing any flow at all. A clip that size should also display a strong Blakesley Effect. Don't discard it just yet, larger pics could prove to be more definitive either way.



No, die flow will slightly distort the clip so it will not be perfectly rounded and sized. It should at least be reasonably close to the same curvature as the coin though, just not an exact match.

I might be going out on a limb but it still looks good to me.


Notice the distortion of the N and A and especially the olive leaves. The olive leaves on a normal Ike are not shaped like that. And take a look at those talons. I believe they were distorted by metal flowing into the void of the incomplete planchet.


The rim here shows a Blakesley effect to my eye. Notice how high it is at the leftmost arrow, and then slopes down and is flat at the rightmost arrow. The same thing can be seen on the obverse where it goes from being a sharp, square rim in on the left and right side to a softer, rounded rim at the bottom opposite the clip.

It would also be normal to expect the rim to have a stronger chiseling effect on a smaller clip. With a small clip like that, the whole clip is within the rim, so the whole rim is going to be distorted within that area. The clip also intersects the rim at a shallow angle, so the transition between normal and distorted rim is going to be gradual. With the large clip, it will intersect the rim at a much steeper angle, so there will be less of the rim in the transitional area and a much more abrupt change from normal to absent rim.

For comparison, here's a PCGS registry set of Eisenhower dollars that includes a number with large clips.

I'm no expert on errors either, but how would that thin, raised lip on the clip (shown above) be struck that way?