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Subjects
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Page
Index
Links
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Link:
Worth MORE Than A Plugged Nickel!
Link:
A Tale Of Three Pocket Pieces
Link:
200 Year Commemorative Strike
Link:
A Few Good Buffalo Chips
Link:
A Scanner Is NOT A Camera!
Link:
1796 DrapedBustCent Struck On Dime Planchet
Link:
1787 FUGIO Cent Obverse Die Trial Piece
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Enlargement scans available on WWW and ScrapBook CD-ROM.
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| 8/10
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Worth MORE Than A Plugged Nickel!
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So here is what I know so far... First, you take a perfectly good $50
proof 1804 dollar GMM strike and punch a hole in it! At first I thought
it was a half cent sized hole but then I compared the silver cutout to
a half cent and the cutout is significantly smaller that a half cent.
So... I assume you then plug the hole with a copper insert you created
with the same punch you just used on that nice proof silver dollar. This
was not, as far as I can determine, a copper planchet already prepared
for another purpose...for one thing it had to be the correct thickness
to match the silver dollar. I know a coin expands when struck so perhaps
the hole was the size of a "raw" half cent planchet but the size
difference seems a bit much for that. Finally you strike the resulting
planchet with half cent dies three times (see closeup at right.)
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What I don't know is; "Why?" Oh yeah... pay attention now... you
don't do this just once! You almost certainly do it at a minimum of
twice because the silver cutout (shown at left) that came with this
trial piece (for lack of a better term at this point) is not from the
1804 dollar used for this piece. The silver cutout is from the opposite
edge of a different 1804 proof dollar (there goes another $50!) Maybe
the fact this specimen split out to the left edge caused a second
attempt. Although...the other piece was punched quite close to the right
edge. Strange!
I don't understand how GMM could spare the resource, both already
created products and manpower, unless it served some useful purpose.
Perhaps training, experimenting with the materials to learn "What
happens when..." or exploring new capabilities for future creations.
Maybe a 1792 Voight Silver Center Cent from GMM is in our
future!
Perhaps a customer ordered a plugged 1804 dollar but that is so far-out
I can't guess what their thought processes might have been. If this was
a special order piece I would think GMM would need a very high price to
make it worth all the special effort. I did not special order this piece
but bought it already created from GMM's stock.
So this is a question that will most likely have to be circulated around
GMM to find the culprit who knows what's up.
Why was this trial piece created?
...and...
Does anyone out there have a similar piece?
Maybe they have my silver cutout and I have theirs and we can trade!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/9
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A Tale Of Three Pocket Pieces
By Golly! There are circulated GMM strikes floating around out there.
These three pieces have obviously seen a lot more circulation than the
Pocket Piece collection I purchased. I bet the owner showed them to
everyone he met from the sacker at the grocery store to his
brother-in-law! I'd say he definitely got his value out of them and they
are still going strong.
Coins are neat because they get passed down from generation to
generation. "Son... I want to give you something I remember my Dad
always carried with him after my Grandpa gave them to him!"
These belong to my corresponding friend
EMail:Cliff Bolling
who is starting a tradition.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/8
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200 Year Commemorative Strike
This is, to date, the most expensive specimen in my GMM collection. Not
necessarily my most valuable nor my most valued piece but definitely the
one I paid the most for.
Like most beautiful things it has also been a most contrary critter
since the day of its arrival. First...it kept falling out of its holder
so I had to superglue it in. Now I can't take it out to scan it without
destroying the holder. Next...when I tried to scan it the mirror
surfaces of the overstrike reflected so much light I had to play trial
and error with all my scanner controls to little effect. I wonder if
I'll ever get them reset back to my original default settings?
Finally...with precisely the same scanner control settings the obverse
results looks significantly different than the reverse results. I reckon
you will just have to live with my best efforts.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/8
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A Few Good Buffalo Chips
Buffalo Chip One (shown above): I thought all the GMM Hobo
Tokens had "UNITED STATES oF AMERICA" above the Buffalo until I was
working with all my pieces together one day and found the 1996 piece
with Buffalo reverse says "EUREKA SPRINGS, ARK". I also like their
little screw press mint mark. I haven't found either of these on any of
their other Hobo Tokens struck in later years.
Buffalo Chip Two (shown at left and at right): See... I
TOLD YOU that U.S. coins weren't safe around GMM equipment and
machinery! "But they are round and flat and I didn't have to make
them that way!" Yes, I know...we all have our weak moments. Besides
two cents worth of labor is not even enough to start thinking about
making your own planchets. This is another case of the two
coins/planchets being struck together with the same strike. Well, we
certainly got our "two cents worth" here!
I had a weird thing happen to me when shooting the graphics for these
two lovely pieces. I had both clashed Lincoln Cent photos displayed and
while trying to rotate one them I accidentally hit the "mirror" button. At
that point I was looking at the two photos side-by-side and decided that
somehow I had saved the same photo under two different names! I was in
the process of rescanning the missing photo when I noticed the light
reflection in the background of the two "identical" photos was
different. WOW!!! I just couldn't get over how precisely the two clashed
sides matched once the photo was mirrored. Yes, I know... it is obvious
once you think about it but you had to see it to really understand the
impact it made.
What is the correct term for the "clashed" sides of these two pieces?
My first instinct was to call them the clashed die sides until it
suddenly struck me that the dies obviously had NOT clashed. Brockage
doesn't seem to apply here because one expects a mirror impression of
the other side of the specimen in that case. SIGH!!
Buffalo Chip Three (shown below): Just another GMM Hobo
Token! Well... it pays to pay careful attention. This one says "ORIGINAL
HOBO NICKEL SOCIETY" and "FOUNDED 1992". It also has that neat little
screw press mint mark!
I wonder how many different pieces share the screw press mint mark?
While we are at it (is more than one question per subject legal? ...why
not? ...I'm making all this up as I go anyway)...
Are there other GMM Hobo Tokens struck for special occasions or
purposes?
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/8
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A Scanner Is NOT A Camera!
I just spent several hours "playing" with various resolutions and
settings on my very high quality scanner. SIGH! I miss my old
stereoscopic microscope with a single lens reflex camera attached
that I shot my numismatic studies with some twenty years ago.
These are all separate scans at different settings and not simply
magnifications of one original scan. Magnification makes matters worse
than separate scans at increasing resolutions. Anyway... here are my
best efforts on showing y'all the screw press mint mark.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/8
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1796 DrapedBustCent Struck On Dime Planchet
I am a lover of Mexican coinage mainly because of the variety of
specimens available. Some of my favorite pieces are the trial strikes
and the presentation pieces. The trial strikes are usually copper or
lead. The presentation pieces are, like GMM's off-metal pieces, struck
in a nobler metal than the metal of issue.
This superlative little piece would not be considered a presentation
piece because it is not struck on an off-metal planchet with the proper
dimensions for a Draped Bust Cent. I love it none-the-less! I thought it
was a Half Dime planchet when I first saw it but the weight is too much
for that to be the case.
Would you folks please send in scans of your off-metal specimens with
your estimate as to whether they are struck as presentation pieces or
are, like this piece, struck on a wrong planchet?
I may not be able to use all the scans you send if I get overwhelmed but
I'll grab a few of the most unusual pieces and show them here.
Wrong planchet pieces are only those where the planchet is the same size
or smaller than the coin being struck. Some of the other strikes on
larger planchets would most accurately be described as die tests. I
know, all these pieces are being created at the whim of the person
ordering the piece or occasionally by the mint personnel for their own
purposes. Few could be considered true wrong planchet or die trial
specimens but they are lovely pieces and wonderful to collect anyway!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 8/8
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Click on image for enlargement |
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1787 FUGIO Cent Obverse Die Trial Piece
Finally...two dies that are not only different but that can easily be
described in words. One is "FUGIO with a period" and the other is "FUGIO
without a period" ...or... they could even be described as "blunt rays"
and "sharp rays"!
Does anyone have a FUGIO cent with a different die than the two dies
shown here?
Now for the surprise in the Cracker Jack Box (are you old enough to
remember that?) Both the dies illustrated here are from a single FUGIO
cent specimen! I know, I could fake it with my graphics editor but you
are just going to have to trust me on this one. So here we have a real
two head coin...even if the only head on it is the sun face!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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