By Pete Apple The correct degree of hardness is a critical factor in the minting of coins. If an unstruck planchet is too hard the image pressed on the coin will not be clear. If it’s too soft, the coin will wear too quickly. The U S Mint uses a Rockwell Hardness Test on all […]
by Ken Potter – NLG This 1915-D/D/D 1c listed by CONECA as RPM-001 and by Cherrypickers’ Guide as new FS-501. It shows a clearly tripled Mintmark Tilted Clockwise & South. In addition to other obvious doubling, it shows a nice triple serif as pointed out by the arrows. Images © Ken Potter 2010 Another shot from angle […]
Q: What Determines The Final Diameter Of A “Golden” Dollar? A: For the heck of it I decided to check some of my 2007-P Adams dollars including those with a smooth edge, normal edge lettering, double edge lettering and extremely strong edge lettering to see what their diameters were and if they differed from variety […]
Photo © Ken Potter 2007 / Coin Courtesy of Tracy Miller 1969-D Washington Quarter With a Type B Reverse Q: While attending the Baltimore 2003 Errorama, James Wiles did an ANA Numismatic Theatre Presentation on the Washington Quarter Reverse Design Varieties. The CONECA website gets questions about these so often that I asked James if […]
Images courtesy of John Caswell Q: John Caswell sent an email asking about the potential rarity of two basic hub types that can be found on the reverse of the 1900 Barber quarter (for all Mints). On the so-called Ty-II Reverse the wing tip over the E of UNITED does not touch the right lower […]
Image © Ken Potter 2005 / Coin courtesy of Gary Burger Q: Eric L., posed a question about the so-called “Wounded Eagle,” 2000-P Sacagawea dollar. He says: “I bought about 200 rolls of the new [2000-P] Sacagawea coins from my local WalMart during their promotion [that year] in a search to find a “wounded-eagle” […]
Photo courtesy of Kenneth A. Watson Q: Hello, as I said, I am new to the error/variety aspect of the hobby and have started with circulated Wheat cents. I find this to be quite interesting. I know you must get this all the time and I hope you don’t mind my inquiry about the attached […]
Photo © Ken Potter 2006 Q: I have a 1999-W $5.00 Gold 1/10th Eagle that was struck by the Mint with an Uncirculated Matte Finish instead of the intended Proof finish for the West Point issue. Is this an error or variety? Also, why is it referred to by the grading service as struck with […]
Photo © Ken Potter 1994 / Coin courtesy of H. M. Kuykendall Q: “I am having a heckuva time trying to find a photo of the 1969-D/D Roosevelt Dime (FS-020.4). While looking over my Mint Sets, I found that the ’69-D dime looked a bit “different” (Maybe because my eyesight isn’t what it used to […]
The images above were taken of the coin with side lighting which creates many harsh shadows but brings out some details lost with the brighter scanner shots below. Notice the ghosting of the Lincoln cent bust showing through on the obverse which helps us orientate the obv/rev die alignment. Images Courtesy Of Ken […]
