Lincoln Cent Error Or Damage?

A die adjustment strike is a very, VERY weak strike on a coin that was struke while the pressure of the press was being adjusted. Most often they will pretty much look like blank planchets with just a couple of details showing through. The details that will show are going to be those that are the lowest on the coin, because those are the highest on the die. Usually this will be the outline around the bust.

Die adjustment strikes are scarce - they do not show up often at all, and are considered striking errors because they were supposed to be removed from the press by whomever is tooling the adjustment. They sometimes fall into the bins of finished coins, and the trouble of digging them out was more than the worker believed important.

The example below, ripped from www.coinfacts.com for educational purposes, is a Peace dollar. Note how ONLY the lowest parts of the design on the coin (and some detail around the outer edge) show up.




Very VERY often people mistake simple Grease Filled Dies for die adjustment strikes. The MAIN difference between the two is that with a Grease Filled Die the strike is not incomplete, it just has stuff obstructing the details. Thus, the rims will be complete on the Grease Filled Die. Grease Filled Dies will also show details that are deeper in the die, and the missing details could be those that would strike up completely even with a weaker strike. This is because the actual pressure of the strike has nothing at all to do with what details are missing. With die adjustment strikes, it is ALL about the lack of pressure in striking a coin, so the details that do strike up are only the highest on the die.

Below is a Grease Filled Die quarter that shows up in a web search for die adjustment strike - like I said, a LOT of people cannot tell the difference, and it's actually easy:

I decided instead to photograph one of my own examples, so I will repost the topic once I get this done.. but the example .... n the image of Lincoln is clearly seen as a bulge on the reverse. Not a distinct outline with sharp edges... rather a rounded bulge, but clearly difining the image of lincoln (upside down) on the reverse.

Mike - that's a glossary issue in the automatic post editor that happens to all posts. Since Close AM cents are very often referred to as CAM, they made it a defined term in the glossary and the programming is set to search for defined terms and link them to the definition. Same thing happens with DDO, RPM, and other abbreviations.