Presidential Type II Planchet W/ Faint Edge Lettering

The inscription is actually better visible with the naked eye, the camera I used is a pretty standard digital camera. After a little research I found out that the edge lettering could be faint because of the way the minting process works. The coin is not as wide in diameter because it has not been pressed in one of the stages, so when it gets to the inscription part, the coin does not quite fit the inscription device (I really have limited info on how mints work, so excuse me if I sound nooby)

That is a killer find As long as it weighs the correct 8.1g, then you should have a nice valuable error on your hands. Your technical understanding is correct, an unstruck planchet has a smaller diameter than a struck coin. The Presidential dollars are struck and then have the edge lettering applied in a secondary process. The coins are force spun against a bar die so the tolerances have to be tight. If a smaller planchet were to get edge lettering, it is to be expected that the lettering would be weaker than that of a normally struck full sized coin. However, there have also been normally struck Pres Dollars with weak edge lettering as well.

In 2007, PCGS was offering a $2500 reward for the first golden dollar planchet with edge lettering. The reward was collected in the same year but not many of these errors have turned up since then, I could see this being a $500+ error if you were to get it certified. Even if the coin did not have any edge lettering present, it would still be a desirable error. Golden dollar planchets are worth around $75.