Monday, January 30, 2012

172. COIN'S EDGE

Coin's edge is the most difficult part of a coin to check for irregularities.

Often, especially for more than 100 coins to check, I did not bother to look at the edges.

Flip, flip and sometimes those small edges hurt my eyes.

According to Ned Rorem, humour is the ability to see three sides to one coin.

In our case, we need to look at the third side of the coin to get its humour side. Hehe. That's not humorous at all.

But when talking about irregularities, or errors at the third side of the coin, I managed to collect several specimens.

Shown below is my collection of partial collar error coins with the new books that I bought using book vouchers given by Government.



I am pleased to find out my other collectors friends are also aware of this error.

I think this is the most beautiful partial collar I have ever seen. Unlike Ned Rorem, I see both humor and beauty.

Credit to Shaq JB.

Error > Strike Error > Partial Collar Strike Error

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

171. 50 sen 1984 doubled die obverse

image 1: obverse of the coin

image 2: reverse of the coin


image 3: 4 images of different doubled GC, credit to GSK

image 4: close up view of the GC, 50 times magnification

image 5: close up view of the GC

image 6: doubling on the part of Parliament Building showing clear separation

image 7: another part of Parliament Building which is farther from the location of doubling which shows no doubling


Many thanks to blogger Nu who was pointing this Doubled Die Obverse (DDO) out to us some months ago.

After he wrote this article, I quickly search for this coin but to no avail. Only recently when I asked my fellow friends in my facebook group, it seems that there are many of these DDO has been kept by collectors. Most of them are not aware that this is another variety of 50 sen 1984 - which can be included into doubled die variety category.

Doubled die variety coin is a booming niche in numismatic scene in the US.

And it is sad that none of this doubled die coin - which many of them are monstrous - are not listed in our local catalogue. And suprisingly die gouge errors were listed!

The best part of collecting variety coin is that it trains us to be more particular. I myself am not aware of this doubling until Nu pointed this out. Furthermore, variety coin collecting gives challenge in analysis part - of what kind of doubling. Currently there are eight classes of doubled die. And last but not least, collecting variety coin is fun, rewarding and cheap. Only some knowledge, passion and perseverance are required, not handsome money.

For this coin, it is obvious the doubling is offsetted to 4 o'clock direction. But the doubling only cover on area around 4 o'clock at the obverse, nearer to the rim. Could it be a Tilt Hub Doubling?