Strange Kennedy Strike

[FC57coins]

I have a 1996P Kennedy half with a very peculiar reverse. The obverse is very smooth and devoid of marks. I picked it out of a mint set because it looked like it could grade MS66 or 67 based on the obverse. The reverse is a different story. It displays a very peculiar granularity through out the entire obverse - the fields, the devices, everything. What caused this? I am enclosing a picture of the reverse where you will be able to see the granularity on the right and left sides of the picture, but it's uniform throughout the reverse.

 

Thanks

 

Frank

[DWLange]

I showed your post to our error coin expert, Dave Camire, and this was his response:

 

"It could be several things, but the photograph is of such poor quality that it makes it almost impossible to say for sure. It appears to be struck from really worn dies, but that does not make sense since he says it came from a mint set. The other possiblity (and I think the case) is that the reverse was struck thru the plastic die covering (or something similar) then it was subsequently washed and dried leaving the appearance we see in the photo."

 

You may want to submit it to NGC as a mint error coin. There is no additional charge for error attribution . . . just the regular tier price.

[FC57coins]

Sorry about the quality of the previous picture, I'm enclosing another one to see if the quality is better. I talked to a few dealers at a recent coin show and they suggested that it may have been a case where the planchet stayed in the acid bath too long. However, that would not explain why the obverse is perfectly unscathed.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

 

Regards,

 

Frank