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 Replies: 11 / Views: 3,924 |
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New Member
United States
7 Posts |
How does one distinguish if a coin is damaged or an error of the coin making process? Are there any good forum posts that help explain the differences? My 13y old daughter and I are starting to go through my coin jar that I accumulated from the mid 90's to approx 2003. We are beginners but have done some research before we got started. We are going through pennies now and this one was found. It looks like it is bent slightly and has the damage seen in the pics below.   I hope the pics are okay. Any ideas would be helpful. Thank you and cheers! |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7174 Posts |
 Use the search mode on this site. Learn how a coin is minted, Then when you find something, ask yourself could this have happened during the minting prosses. If not it is damage. Your coin is smashed and bent, no way it came out of the prosses that way. |
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Moderator
United States
96615 Posts |
to CCF |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
62064 Posts |
Note the coin is out of round. First clue.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2843 Posts |
 Step one is understanding how a coin is minted. Then, understand what errors can take place in that process and how each one looks. Then, you can use the process of elimination. If an anomaly cannot have happened during the minting of a coin, then it is not an error. It is damage. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
There is no simple answer to this question other than hands-on experience. But I agree that learning how a coin is minted is an important step in the process. to the CCF! |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
A very useful tool to assist in the learning process is Google Images.
For instance, if you whant to find out what a die cap error looks like, go to
Google Images:- "Die cap coin error"
The next step is to determine if your suspected error is a contrived 'shed job' or a genuine error.
Have a good look at it, then post a picture here in the CCF for a range of independent opinions.
If further investigation is needed, take it to an experienced coin dealer, for personal inspection in hand, or if it could be highly valuable, submit it for slabbing.
Over the years, you should gain a lot of confidence about errors generally, lean for yourself, and share your increasingly valued experience and opinions with others.
That is one of the reasons why CCF exists.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
62064 Posts |
When you consider the striking process, you can see what can/cannot happen during the strike. Like the coin above. Note the outside edge of the coin. When a normal strike happens, the outer size ic controlled by the collar.   Thus the outside edges will flat or have reeds. Now consider the rim of the coin, the dies and collar create this rounded/flat rim.  The two work together to create this. Now back to the OP's coin. Is the outside edge rounded? Is the rim present? Both are there, but neither are normal. Both are distorted. So what happened? Knowing our discussion that the should be normal, we have to conclude that they were altered after the strike.  If we held a ball out with our hand and drop it. What happens? It fall straight down. But if you did this with a ping pong ball, it might not fall straight down, because of wind. Same with a coin, after it was struck, something altered the end result.  So cause and affect, created/altered the coin. We understand this more when we know more about the process of creating a coin. Edited by coop
09/13/2021 2:56 pm
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Moderator
United States
188770 Posts |
to the Community! |
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New Member
 United States
7 Posts |
Thanks everyone for the responses. This community is great. Cheers!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3207 Posts |
If you can imagine using a hammer, screwdriver, drill, glue, vise, torch, acid, etc. to deface a coin to match one you are wondering about, well, that's probably exactly how someone damaged the coin you are wondering about. Other unusual looking elements on a coin have a chance to be due to a die event or perhaps mint error.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10635 Posts |
The best advice is what has already been mentioned. Acquaint yourself with the minting process, and look and digest past pages of this forum here on CCF. There is a ton of useful info to be found here!  to the CCF!  |
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Replies: 11 / Views: 3,924 |
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Posted 09/12/2021 3:21 pm
Uncirculated American Silver Eagles 
