1961 Threepence

Here's an MS67 with weak rim beads on the obverse, weak wheat stalk and weak ribbons at the base of the wheat stalks.
http://www.thepurplepenny.com/504,p...culated.html

Hi Trout,

That coin is straight out of an original mint roll so it's not PMD. Most likely it's because the coin blanks were not rimmed prior to minting. Without the raised rim the beads and denticles were not formed fully. Kind of like the Blakesley Effect you see on clipped coins, but just all the way round! A second (but less likely) explanation is that the production dies were slightly convex. This would allow lower striking pressure but ensuring that the centre of the design was fully struck up.

Mark

You'd be right on that, I called it an MS65 because of the surface marks at the base of the bust - the strike rarely holds Aussie coins back because it's usually well above average. A majority of the details on both the 1956 and 1963 threepence are strong - I say they fit perfectly within my chart.

They're well struck up coins - this is a poorly struck up coin:
http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleN...&lotNo=23514

The legends are incomplete due to an uneven strike, there's severe die rust in the fields which has been harshly cleaned leaving raised surface hairlines.