Smallest Clip I Have Ever Found

Cool! I found recently found one like this in a roll of Canadian BU cents. 1961 I think (I went through several dates).

Turning my thoughts to this, I can see how that would happen. The width:thickness ratio of planchet stock means it'll bend/bunch up easily, and that much slack is easily imaginable even in equipment designed to precisely move the stock. That would make tiny edge clips from bunching far easier than the failure to advance properly characteristic of larger clips.

Another thought/possible cause is the side-side width dimension of a planchet strip (in conjunction with the relatively minor thickness by comparison) should make it subject to tiny width dimensional changes via either production tolerances or environmental changes. What would this take, maybe a whole 0.5mm shrinkage across the entire width of a strip?

I'm gonna redo the walking tour of the Mint today (<3 living in Philly ) to see just how wide these strips are. Good excuse to get in the building again.

Welp, so much for the Mint. Every schoolchild within 100 miles is here today, and the line is half the length of the building. I'll have to settle for the lawn in front of Independence Hall for my contemplation.

I dunno, ErrorCoins - I'm thinking it rests on what exactly the mode of failure is when the strip isn't properly advanced to the next punch. If that failure could be equally any dimension of movement - my assumption, based on no hard data - then mathematically it's far more likely to fall in a large-clip area than a small. If that failure mode is primarily a very small miss, then my musing on probability probably (wow, tortued English) isn't accurate although I think it should remain in the differential.