I'd need to see the edges to make the determination on them If the edge is the same as the front and back it's going to be environmental, if the edge is still BU, clean and coppery reeded, it might be improperly annealed. I have a coin I discussed with Fred Weinberg, a pretty well known error collector/dealer/attributor,that I thought has an honest shot at being improperly annealed and he thinks more likely than not it is an annealing error.
Anyways you can't really tell them from the surfaces because it manifests differently from coin to coin it looks different, but because of the collar from striking, the edge gets wiped clean putting on the reeding during minting and that will always look untouched BU clean compared to the surfaces.
My example was found in a BU roll and the only one like it in that roll, to me it could only be an annealing error left too long to anneal or improperly cleaned after annealing. The spoting that looks like rust sort of, is kind of a dirty copper color like a penny going red/brown it doesn't come off with distilled water and I haven't tried harsher methods than that not wanting to damage it they must clean them after annealing so their must be a way to remove whatever is there somehow. Anyways I don't want to do anything to it that would possible make it tampered and not mint state. The lustereo is still there even showing through the surface.
The key take away I learned to attribute an annealing error would be a relatively clean bright BU edge. If it's environmental caused after the strike, the edge will be just as bad as the surfaces. There should be a drastic difference between the edge and the coin surface's for it to be an annealing step issue.
Still no guarantee mine is an annealing error either though unless it got graded and attributed and the graders were in agreement that it is an annealing error. And I'm thinking the cost to do that will exceed what it could sell for, so I probably won't send it for grading. I know how and where I got it, and I don't plan on selling it anyways so I'm good with where it stands and will be part of my collection in a 2x2 and labeled.
PS, and I know in the last picture I am holding it poorly lol. I was trying to figure out what I was seeing and had then still and it was given the distilled water treatment after that picture to see if it would come off. I don't think fingerprints will be an issue my hands were clean Going into it.and after the distilled water dip and blotting to see if it would come off which it didn't. Lol
Posted 08/04/2019 10:16 am
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