New guy with a question

Hello all here,

My Grandad has a wheat cent that has no face. The reverse is real clear, real dark but clear. Have no idea how old it is
outside of at least 1958. The front looks like it was never stamped... but weren't they stamped the same way they are
now, that is struck from both sides at the same time? Could this have happened? He wants to know if it is worth anything
to a collector.

Thank you all in advance for any replies.

Dave Meek

Funny Looking wrote:
Hello all here,

My Grandad has a wheat cent that has no face. The reverse is real clear, real dark but clear. Have no idea how old it is
outside of at least 1958. The front looks like it was never stamped... but weren't they stamped the same way they are
now, that is struck from both sides at the same time? Could this have happened? He wants to know if it is worth anything
to a collector.

Thank you all in advance for any replies.

Dave Meek



Most likely someone sanded the face off the coin. Is the face side
smooth or does it have some texture? First I'd start off with a weight.


--
Jason Craton ---- CONECA N-3407 --- WINS #5
---------------------------
Interested in error coins?
http://www.error-coins.com - A work in progress (lack of progress really).

Nick is a DICK!

From: "Funny Looking"

My Grandad has a wheat cent that has no face. The reverse is real clear, real
dark but clear ... The front looks like it was never stamped... but weren't
they stamped the same way they are now, that is struck from both sides at the
same time? Could this have happened?

Yes - how this *could* have happened =

In the coin-striking machine, planchets (blanks) are machine-fed into a
"collar" (the thing that holds the coin in place), and the coin is then struck,
as you said, both sides at the same time. The struck coin is then ejected out
of the collar, and a new planchet is fed in.

Consider this three-coin sequence of an error: Suppose during one strike, the
coin got stuck, tails side in, and the next planchet was fed into the collar
next to the heads side of the already-struck coin. The new strike would look
like this: a heads on one side and a very faint "mirror image" heads (from the
surface of the stuck coin) on the opposing side.

Now suppose that, after that strike, the "older" coin was ejected out of the
collar, but the heads & faint heads error coin got stuck, staying in the collar
as had the previously one had. After the next strike, the third coin's image
would look like your Granddad's - tails on one side and nothing on the other,
as the "weak" mirror image of the second coin would have been too "weak" to
present an image.

He wants to know if it is worth anything to a collector.

Possibly. The first thing a collector might wonder is if the coin had been a
"normal" strike, and the heads ground off wirth something like a metal grinder
/ polisher. There is a way to tell, and that is the rim of the coin. A novice
like you probably won't be able to tell, but an expert could. There are a few
who frequent rec.collecting.coins, maybe you could get someone from this
NewsGroup to help.

Otherwise, you might have to contact someone like Ken Potter (a cent coin
errors expert) - his website: http://koinpro.tripod.com/ - or someone from
CONECA (a coin errors group).

8-]




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