RWB

Drafts have gone out to contributors for their review - this helps ensure they are quoted and credited correctly.

The overall theme relates to the interwar and WW-II period.

Next step in coin handling ----

Yep. Note the cut border on the reverse. Worthless novelty.

The "blank" is a very worn Morgan dollar. There are collectors of such things, called "low ball collectors", but I don't know if this is one for them.

Yep -- just not as strong a curve. Now returning you to your regular program.

Probably better to make a new thread. That will generate responses to your specific question. It would get "lost" here.

The obvious question is "Why raise a rim that doesn't look like the one on a coin?" The reason is that the US Mint uses die that are slightly convex (higher in the center) rather than flat. When combined with a slightly raised rim on the planchet, this produced better transfer of detail from the die to the planchet during manufacture, and also lengthens die life by spreading the striking pressure more evenly over the die. (Note: on many older US coins, the blank is too large to fit into the press collar, so any blank that gets mixed with planchets will produce a defective coin.)

Just a minor adjustment --- Before coins are struck a machine cuts out a circular piece of metal of the correct diameter and thickness for a coin. (This looks a lot like a knock-out from an electrical box.) This is called a "blank." Once the blank is cut, it goes into a device called an "upsetting machine." Thus rotates and presses the edge of the blank so that it is perfectly circular and free of burrs or anything that might get stuck in the coin press. This process also raises a rounded rim. In the photos below, a blank for a Morgan dollar is on the left and a planchet is on the right.

"Does anyone know these coins?" The upper coin, I knew him well, was by name Horatio a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. As to the other, 'tis a puzzlement, a flat plainness, a mock of that which was to hand a' ale draughts 'round all, and more, you see!

Sorry, but really nothing there out of the ordinary.

Look for lack of detail in parts of the design - usually the highest points. This means that each design will have different parts of the design you'll have to examine. One way to get started is to look at the photos in the Guide Book of United States Coins (Whitman Publishing). Compare your coin to the one illustrated, especially details at the center, within leaves, and on a wreath. For Morgan dollars, the hair just above the ear is a good indicator of detail. Also look at the obverse stars and the reverse wreath. A poorly struck (ie, poorly detailed) Morgan will have flat-looking stars, missing detail in the center hair and a flat upper surface to the wreath leaves. I'm sure JKK and others can give you good information on what they use.

No. What do you see that suggests it is worth a premium?

Agree. Re-plated for use in cheap jewelry or novelty items. Worth 1-cent.

A lot of Morgan dollars show cracks, especially on the reverse. The are so common that they are seldom mentioned in descriptions unless very extensive or are a "pick-up-point" for a specific die variety.

Well, get one of those little butane torches chefs use to caramelize sugar atop crème brulee. Light it and aim at the coin until the surface starts to curdle, then dip in liquid nitrogen to cool.

The columns are not Corinthian, but in the more commonly seen "Corroded Style." Also, "980" is not the date. It is the weight measured in crocus pollen.

Climate change and projections of impacts are based on real data and reliable thermodynamic calculations. The climactic "cycles" are defined by sets of data points covering a very long time span - at least in human terms. The 26,000 year "wobble" in earth's rotation has little effect because the rotational tilt remains the same. Real changes can be correlated with the earth's orbit; however, all of these are on time scales much longer than those currently being observed. Further, there are direct statistical and anecdotal correlations between use of fossil fuels and both mean temperature increases and effects of weather pattern changes. For any closed system there is a tipping point beyond which it loses the ability to self-regulate: it becomes a "runaway" system that stabilizes only at some undetermined, and entirely new set of conditions. Public confusion arises not from the observed changes, but from an ignorantly-politicized dispute about why the sudden changes (150 years is incredibly "sudden" in climatology). Frozen dogma is useless in attacking and moderating the observed changes. The human population of earth is the only entity with the capability of remediating mean temperature increases. It is not certain what will happen if we act. If we do not act the math is clear and the impacts on all life on earth will be significant. For those who point to events like the cold outbreak in the central and southern US and say "So how can this be global warming?" the response is that this is exactly the kind of effect expected from an increasingly chaotic weather system. Greater variability, greater intensive, unanticipated departure from historic and prehistoric patterns, all are predicted on large scales but are not understood (yet) on the small scale of local regions. For coin collectors, the takeaway is: don't put coins in a bank box in a 1,000 year flood plain.

The only "error" would be the error of wasting $25+ to have it authenticated and graded. As has already been said - no numismatic value.

The Mint holds a sales/marketing meeting each October. Reps from all over the coin hobby and business attend.

Thanks! It's persistence and consistency. The results will never be perfect, but I try to have it as accurate and complete as practical. Sometimes, it is the willingness to take a chance and put time into searching where others say there is no gold. All three Renaissance books came from that approach.

Heritage has not wholesaled the book to Wizard or other book sellers.

Search "ultrasonic welding" to buy your own machine to seal the slab. A good weld in a dust-free nitrogen atmosphere and your coins will be happy for a very long time.

The SG book is linear in time. FMTM is like stepping from rock to rock in a stream.

Is it one of the Coin World holders?