Narrow Reeding found on some 2015 1/10th oz. gold eagles

[CaptHenway]

NGC is certifying 2015 1/10th oz. gold eagles with Narrow Reeding. According to Coin World the Mint is saying that "several thousand" were made.

 

I have a theory that they were made from a leftover collar from the 2008-W 1/10th oz. gold Buffalo coins, either the Burnished Unc. or the Proof issue, which do have narrow reeding. Still trying to prove it.

 

Tom DeLorey

[Mr. Smith Guesser]

The Mint actually commented on this. From CoinWorld:

 

Adam Stump, deputy director of the U.S. Mint's Office of Corporate Communications, provided a response Jan. 29 on behalf of the Mint concerning the different edge reeding styles:

 

"Reeding collars are considered standard tooling," Stump responded vie email. "Multiple collars were used to produce the 2015 tenth-ounce gold Eagles. The U.S. Mint does not consider the coin an error, just a variant. There were several thousand of the variant produced."

 

Still waiting to be answered is how the Mint decides the number of edge reeds to appear on a reeded edge coin, the actual number of reeds per Narrow Reeds and Wide Reeds collar dies and why there is not a standard reed configuration for the collar dies.

 

Stump said when a collar die reaches the end of its productive life, the collar die is pulled from service and scrapped.

 

The collar die is a third die in the coin production process. The collar die restrains the metal flow created by the striking of a planchet between an obverse and reverse die. The collar imparts whatever design comprises the edge device. This could be reeding, a plain flat surface, or lettering or other ornamentation.

Link: https://www.coinworld.com/news/tenth-ounce-gold-eagle-edge-reeding-styles-variants-not-errors.html

[cpm9ball]

The Mint actually commented on this. From CoinWorld:

 

Adam Stump, deputy director of the U.S. Mint's Office of Corporate Communications, provided a response Jan. 29 on behalf of the Mint concerning the different edge reeding styles:

 

"Reeding collars are considered standard tooling," Stump responded vie email. "Multiple collars were used to produce the 2015 tenth-ounce gold Eagles. The U.S. Mint does not consider the coin an error, just a variant. There were several thousand of the variant produced."

 

Still waiting to be answered is how the Mint decides the number of edge reeds to appear on a reeded edge coin, the actual number of reeds per Narrow Reeds and Wide Reeds collar dies and why there is not a standard reed configuration for the collar dies.

 

Stump said when a collar die reaches the end of its productive life, the collar die is pulled from service and scrapped.

 

The collar die is a third die in the coin production process. The collar die restrains the metal flow created by the striking of a planchet between an obverse and reverse die. The collar imparts whatever design comprises the edge device. This could be reeding, a plain flat surface, or lettering or other ornamentation.

Link: https://www.coinworld.com/news/tenth-ounce-gold-eagle-edge-reeding-styles-variants-not-errors.html

 

Apparently, the Mint uses the same logic as Mother Nature. The reeds around ponds are not created equal.

 

Chris

[CaptHenway]

Somebody pointed out to me that the First Spouse coins have fine reeding. Perhaps they need to use that on 24kt gold coins, which the Spouse and Buffallo coins are.

 

I'm pretty sure these 2015 1/10 Eagles were struck from a Buffalo collar. Since a collar is considered the "third die," wouldn't that make the 2015 Narrow Reeding coins Mules?

 

TD

[Conder101]

I don't really follow the bullion, but do they make 1/10 oz buffalos each year? And if not when was the last time they did make them? Also are the 1/10 eagle and 1/10 oz buffalo the same diameter? A 1/10 oz eagle planchet would be larger than a Buffalo planchet but that could be accomplished by keeping the diameter the same and making the planchet thicker.

 

If they haven't made the buffalos since 2008, would they keep the edge collar sitting around that long?

[CaptHenway]

They only made the fractional Buffaloes in 2008. Then when the economy crashed and people were buying bullion like mad they cut back most of the numismatic bullion offerings.

 

The 1/10th are the same outer diameter as the 1/10th eagles. Though the interior diameter of the Buffalo collar is slightly greater due to the shorter reeds, I am sure that that gold eagle planchets would have no trouble expanding outwards into the Buffalo collar during the strike.

 

The Mints keep lots of old equipment around in case they might need it again. During one of my ANA Summer Seminar tours down on the floor of the Denver Mint, one of the Mint workers showed us a collar used to make Phillipine coins decades earlier.

 

It is likely that they kept the fractional Buffalo collars around in case they resumed making them some day, and perhaps after seven years they decided to use them up. Makes me wonder if they used up other sizes of Buffalo collars as well. Or maybe somebody just goofed and grabbed the wrong one off the parts shelf.

[CaptHenway]

Apparently the Mint has decided that if they ignore the question as to if they used the collar intended for the Buffalo coins it will go away.

[RWB]

The buffalo collars are used when hitching them into a team to pull the wagons of gold to and from the mint. The special "bison collars" are used only once every 200 years...on the Bisontennial.

 

 

Coinage collars are kept in the die vault and signed out individually...no grabbing one off the shelf. Modern collars are machined to specific sizes and marked with the coin type, diameter, production date, etc. At West Point they are also notched to align only with the matching face dies. I don't know about the other mints.

 

 

[CaptHenway]

The Mint has confirmed my theory, per Coin World:

 

http://www.coinworld.com/news/mint-confirms-narrow-reeds-gold-eagle-collar-first-used-in-2008.html

 

 

The mintage of the 2014 1/10th gold eagles with the Narrow Reeding has been estimated at 15,000.