In the era of close-up phone snapshots and quick posts passing by, even the pocket change may seem spectacular. The slightest swell of a letter, a strange-shaped edge, an indistinct trace in the field may trigger the same idea: Is this one of the rare ones?
In a few cases it is yes coins do go out of the mint with lawful errors. The most commonly found rarities however are often common mint side effects or damage that occurred after the coin entered circulation. That line is important in the numismatics since post-mint damage may resemble genuine errors, but with minimal collector value.
1. Machine Doubling (or Mechanical Doubling)
It is the standard fake alarm: flattened shelf-like doubling on letters or figures, that may seem to the eye at first, like doubled die. In contrast to hub doubling, machine doubling is the result of motion during the strike and frequently appears as the design pushed aside to make a narrow ledge. It is often seen on high contrast surfaces like the mottos and Liberty, where the shadow makes it seem pronounced.
According to CONECA, machine doubling damage is not hub doubling and does not carry any premium, an unvarnished fact that comes in handy when considering more mundane finds.
2. Die Deterioration Doubling (Mushy, Thick Lettering)
Dies that are old may tend to appear swollen, twisted, or doubled around the rim. It is a genuinely believable effect in photographs, particularly in contemporary coin where slight alterations in relief are reflected as dramatic additional edges. According to CONECA, die deterioration is a product of extensive die use and can manifest itself in fields in flow lines or an orange peel texture.
This is so widespread that experts have accepted it as an ordinary off-shoot of the production process, rather than a quality one.
3. Minor Die Chuckles Sold under the title of Additional Letters or Blobs
Even a small bump of the inside of a letter, around a date, or a commanding edge may resemble an added feature, an extra digit, an extra leaf, or a hidden sign. In most instances it is merely a tiny die chip: a bit of die steel which broke off leaving a raised dot on struck coins. These are particularly simple to misread on Lincoln cents where raised dots can be discovered inside letters.
Smaller petals are the rule; bigger breaks (the real cuds), are quite another thing and do not occur regularly in the pocket-change.
4. Die Cracks Which resemble Scratches (or Spiked Features)
Cracks form in the die producing raised lines- a major difference between the scratches that cut into the coin. Since raised lines reflect light, the casual observer can readily believe that some object has been placed on the portrait or legend, thus transforming a crack into a legend. Certain collectors pursue particular themes (such as the cracks of the spiked head on cents), although most of the cracks that occur in everyday life are minor and abundant.
The character of the line in worn coins may be more difficult to read, and this is the reason why it is so frequently mistaken in the first place.
5. Fatty Dies used to produce missing features
When grease or dirt clogs part of a die, the slapped coin may exhibit weak or missing patterns- blurred letters, a slight motto, or a device all but missing. Practically, numerous of the missing letter claims are to be referred to this general error, which is also known in the literature on minting-error as a filled die or strike-through by grease.
Since it can be readily faked by casting counterfeit coins, advanced collectors are usually reserved unless the surfaces and strike features of the coin can be used to argue that the coin was omitted by the mint.
6. Coin Misalignment Baffled With an Off-Center Strike
Actual off-center hits cause part of the design to be lost due to the planchet not being in place when struck. A common appearance of a coin that appears unnatural on one side and natural on the other is known as a look-alike in error nomenclature often referred to as a misaligned die effect. In pocket change, most of the so-called off-centers are optical illusions due to uneven wear, lighting or rim damage.
The dependable method to determine whether the coin has actually lost design at the edge or not is just to look like moved.
7. Broadstrikes Buildup Interchangeable with Wrong PlanchetCoins
A coin that has been struck, and that has not had the collar, is liable to become flattened and extended, being broader than usual, and in unusual and occasionally unusual shapes. That additional diameter makes many conclude that the coin was minted on an incorrect planchet or it is of a different denomination. With a broadstrike, however, the entire design, all the lettering missing, is retained, merely in a wider form.
Broadstrikes are one of the most mislabel errors which are hard to detect without the assistance of weight and diameter checks.
8. Cut Edges Which are in reality damage
The part of a metal bit that has been lost may be an actual clip of the blanking operation, yet it is as likely to be a fistula of a coin-counting accident, a tool suture, or a tough blow. With real clips, there is more tendency to display metal flow and, in curved clips, a traditional opposite-side weakness, the Blakesley Effect information that is difficult to establish based on a single fuzzy photograph. Its general error is that any missing edge is automatically regarded as an indicator of a mint error.
9. Fantasy Ghost Designs Crossover (and Pocket-Change Overread)
In cases where the dies are impacted against each other without a planchet between the dies, design elements may be transferred resulting in faint impressions on subsequent coins. These may take the form of concealed portraits, additional letters or even shadow buildings- ideal raw materials in claims of rarity. The glossary of CONECA explains the locations of the clash marks on the Lincoln cents, which may consist of faint building lines that may be visible on both the obverse and the reverse in any of several patterns.
A lot of coins, however, have ad hoc contact marks that simulate this effect and even casual handling may produce lines that appear to be designed in only the sense that the mind desires pattern.
Slow comparison is also the least glamorous pocket-change habit that is the most reliable. When an oddity is consistent across lighting conditions, is consistent with known error patterns and features, and is backed up as a part of the basics (such as normal wear patterns and non-broken surfaces) a suspected rarity stands up well.
With the everyday finds, clarity is normally the aim, not the jackpot. The knowledge of the few above look-alikes assists the collector in not losing time on the imitated surprises and in losing less time on the shadows.`
