Unique 2017 £1 coin from Royal Mint

[Richjb89 3]

Hi there. 

I'm new to the forum and looking for little help.

Recently me and my girfriend visited the Royal Mint outside Cardiff where I had the opportunity to mint my own new £1 coin. After the tour (which we would recommend) we minted our own coin.

I had never seen a new £1 coin so had a quick look at in the the protective case. It was a bit weird on the queens face but thought not much of it and forgot all about it.

A couple of weeks later when the coins reached circulation I noticed our coin was a bit different. I went back to have a look and it seems our coin has an error.

The back of the coin has been printed over the queens face. It's not a double sided coin as the queens face is there but you can also see a perfect indentation of tails side over the queen.

The tails side is seems completely normal and highly detailed (I believe the tour guide mentioned the coins visitors mint are higher detail).

Anyone hear of this happening before? Any clue how it happened?

Pics to follow.

Thanks

 

[Peckris 579]

Wow, a variety caused at the Mint by the coin's current owner! You should be proud - there's few of us can lay claim to that. 

[1949threepence 3,368]

Can you supply pics please, Rich?  

[Richjb89 3]

[1949threepence 3,368]

Yes, well clearly something went wrong in the striking process. Looks for all the world, like a die clash, and a spectaular one at that. Once common in the Victorian era, now almost unknown. 

It would be interesting to know if any other "strikees" experienced similar effects on their pound coins, around the time you struck yours.

Might be worth contacting the Royal MInt, to find out.  

 

[Richjb89 3]

25 minutes ago, 1949threepence said:

Yes, well clearly something went wrong in the striking process. Looks for all the world, like a die clash, and a spectaular one at that. Once common in the Victorian era, now almost unknown. 

It would be interesting to know if any other "strikees" experienced similar effects on their pound coins, around the time you struck yours.

Might be worth contacting the Royal MInt, to find out.  

 

In layman terms what exactly has gone wrong in the process?

From my point of view the coin is placed in a machine struck. Then struck again for added detail (Unique to the coins struck by customers if I recall correctly). 

Has something gone wrong in the second strike? If so how?

[1949threepence 3,368]

28 minutes ago, Richjb89 said:

In layman terms what exactly has gone wrong in the process?

From my point of view the coin is placed in a machine struck. Then struck again for added detail (Unique to the coins struck by customers if I recall correctly). 

Has something gone wrong in the second strike? If so how?

If it is a die clash, it's difficult to know how it was allowed to happen with the technology we have in place today.

This is a quote from Michael Freeman's book "The Bronze coinage of Great Britain" 1985 edition, page 15, which explains the mechanics:-

Quote

"Mention must be made of two further features which commonly occur in the bronze series. The first is the faint outline of part of the obverse design on the reverse, or vice versa, caused by the dies clashing without a blank between them. The high parts of the dies - the areas which appear in lowest relief on the coin - would meet and where the relief of one varied from that of the other, the dies would receive a faint impression of each other's design. The impression would in turn be subsequently transmitted onto all blanks struck from those dies"

Other than that, I don't know. Others may have different thoughts to me. As I said earlier, the RM would be best placed to advise.

[Nick 329]

Looks like a die clash to me.  There seems to be some signs of the obverse lettering on the reverse.

[Richjb89 3]

So it's possible a whole batch of these has been made. As a die clash would have effected any subsequent coins certainly? 

I'll have to ask them!

[Sword 1,518]

I think it's quite likely that a batch was made before anyone noticed the problem.

In the meantime take care of it. Shouldn't have taken it out of its original packaging. Put it in a coin wallet. Handle only by edge if you have to and don't put fingerprints on the surfaces.

Lucky you. 

[rpeddie 119]

nice error, i don't usually purchase errors hope there are more out there and i can get my hands on one

[rpeddie 119]

whats most likely happened is the coin has been told to strike a coin with no blank in the compartment where it should be, thus leaving opposing details on each die( the obverse seems to have got less than the reverse)

so not something wrong with double striking the coin but the dies used to give details to the coin blank have been each damaged due to the missing blank and this damage has and will be transferred to each coin struck after the event.

 

(my page didn't update and didn't see other peoples replies, basically what everyone else said  )

Edited May 21, 2017 by rpeddie

[Richjb89 3]

18 minutes ago, Sword said:

I think it's quite likely that a batch was made before anyone noticed the problem.

In the meantime take care of it. Shouldn't have taken it out of its original packaging. Put it in a coin wallet. Handle only by edge if you have to and don't put fingerprints on the surfaces.

Lucky you. 

I still have the original sleeve that it's been kept in. I've only removed it twice. Once to examine and secondly for those photos.

Don't worry. It's a perfect coin otherewise!

[Sword 1,518]

I didn't realise you can take the coin out without damaging the packaging. No problem if that's the case. 

[Richjb89 3]

17 minutes ago, Sword said:

I didn't realise you can take the coin out without damaging the packaging. No problem if that's the case. 

The sleeve freely opens and closes. No damage or seals broken.

[Stuntman 264]

I struck mine in the second week of Feb (see the Royal Mint experience thread I posted up on the forum) and mine doesn't have the die clash.  When were you there, Rich?

[Richjb89 3]

9th of April I've been informed.

[DaveG38 420]

23 hours ago, Richjb89 said:

So it's possible a whole batch of these has been made. As a die clash would have effected any subsequent coins certainly? 

I'll have to ask them!

I doubt that there's a whole batch of these errors. As has been suggested already, this is almost certainly a die clash, where the two punches struck each other without a blank between them, leading to elements of the two sides imprinted on the other. It seems to me that it wouldn't be very long before a customer of the Royal Mint went through the personal striking process, and then almost immediately examined their coin, discovered the apparently poor quality of the coin and drew this to the attention of the RM staff. RM staff would almost certainly then substitute the dies and striking could continue. If this scenario is correct then it is likely that there are very few of these misstrikes.  

[PWA 1967 2,246]

Yes i am sure your right Dave as soon as some people were given it they would probably look.

If you went with someone else Rich who purchased one the chances are it would be the same and hopefully they will have one.

Nice coin and a pity its still not in the packet like others ,chingford was kind enough to send me one for my grand daughter and although its not here i am sure it was in a sealed thing.

Sorry Rich just read your above post....they must of changed the packets 

Edited May 22, 2017 by PWA 1967

[copper123 1,557]

pretty sure that coin would get a £300 bid off some numptie on ebay as its a 2017 coin  as well .

They are incapable of thinking forward  to next year when there will be hundreds of millions in circulation

[Stuntman 264]

6 hours ago, PWA 1967 said:

Yes i am sure your right Dave as soon as some people were given it they would probably look.

If you went with someone else Rich who purchased one the chances are it would be the same and hopefully they will have one.

Nice coin and a pity its still not in the packet like others ,chingford was kind enough to send me one for my grand daughter and although its not here i am sure it was in a sealed thing.

Sorry Rich just read your above post....they must of changed the packets 

Pete - when the coin has been struck the RM staff member puts the coin into the folder that they give you at the start of the tour.  It's a simple hinged piece of card which then presses together to secure the coin within the 12 sided transparent plastic recess bit (technical term...).  It stays closed unless/until you carefully prise it open, as Rich has done with his own coin.  I've kept mine in the folder rather than examining it closely, ,but it's definitely a normal strike rather than a die clash.

Edited to say - as the tour guest you can select the blank, which you then give to the RM staff member at the striking machine, along with your folder.  You do have to pay an additional fee to strike the coin and you pay this upfront before going into the tour.  This was £5 when I went in Feb but seems to be £7.50 now.

Edited May 22, 2017 by Stuntman