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November 13, 2008
Wrong Planchet Error Coins
Australian 2c struck on 1c planchet
One of the scarcer but more spectacular errors is the wrong planchet error coin. These are one of the simplest error coins to explain. Basically they are coins struck on planchets other than the type they were intended to be struck on. This would usually happen because the supply of coin blanks has been contaminated with coin blanks of another denomination. A wrong planchet error coin could be missing details (if it was struck on a smaller planchet), be weakly struck (if it was struck on a thinner or harder planchet than intended), or perhaps show a large area that is not struck at all (if struck on a larger than intended planchet).
The coin above is an Australian 2c struck on an Australian 1c planchet. The 1c planchet is much smaller than the 2c so this coin is missing a lot of detail. In this case, the date is missing so this coin is generally not as valuable as a similar grade coin with the date showing. This type of wrong planchet error is one of the more common, with the coin being struck on a smaller planchet belonging to the same currency but a different denomination.
Australian $2 struck on Euro 10c planchet
The above coin is a much rarer type of wrong planchet error. In this case the coin has been struck on a planchet of a coin of an entirely different currency! In this case it is an Australian $2 struck on a 10 Euro Cent planchet. In this case the planchet was much thinner than the intended blank and the strike is very weak. In times gone by these sort of wrong planchet errors were very rare indeed, but mints around the world tend to source their coin blanks from third party companies in different countries. These third party companies may have contracts to supply blanks to many different countries and thus contamination can occur. One can only imagine that in earlier times, some of the more bizarre wrong planchet errors (such as US Kennedy half dollars struck on dime planchets) were deliberate 'errors' struck by mint staff.
Posted by mnemtsas at November 13, 2008 2:15 PM
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