Jump to content
British Coin Forum - Predecimal.com

50 Years of RotographicCoinpublications.com A Rotographic Imprint. Price guide reference book publishers since 1959. Lots of books on coins, banknotes and medals. Please visit and like Coin Publications on Facebook for offers and updates.

Coin Publications on Facebook

   Rotographic    

The current range of books. Click the image above to see them on Amazon (printed and Kindle format). More info on coinpublications.com

predecimal.comPredecimal.com. One of the most popular websites on British pre-decimal coins, with hundreds of coins for sale, advice for beginners and interesting information.

Mario

Missing Horizontal line on shield

Recommended Posts

Hello!

New to the Forum. 

What are people thoughts on missing horizontal line. 

Apologies if the image as low resolution 

I'm trying to understand how to load pictures within the limit.

Cheers 

20240220_125810.jpg

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Weak patches can be due to various things. Wear is the most obvious, but also blocked dies or soft strikes. If it is an area of lower relief, then it is usually something filling the die. It may be metal dust or could also be grease. Unused dies are stored in grease to prevent rusting, and sometimes this is not fully removed prior to use. Because the grease will not compress under pressure, the flan is not struck up at this point. 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
6 minutes ago, Rob said:

Weak patches can be due to various things. Wear is the most obvious, but also blocked dies or soft strikes. If it is an area of lower relief, then it is usually something filling the die. It may be metal dust or could also be grease. Unused dies are stored in grease to prevent rusting, and sometimes this is not fully removed prior to use. Because the grease will not compress under pressure, the flan is not struck up at this point. 

Thanks for your reply Rob, and I understand that , but if that's the case why do you see the vertical lines going to the bottom horizontal line when the top line is missing?

I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain. 

20240220_125939.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just a worn die? Wear is rarely completely even. Logically, I would expect the first point of contact to show the greatest die wear, but then that assumes the die is equally hard across the face - which isn't a given. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
9 hours ago, Mario said:

Thanks for your reply Rob, and I understand that , but if that's the case why do you see the vertical lines going to the bottom horizontal line when the top line is missing?

I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain. 

20240220_125939.jpg

That is interesting, I wonder whether a partly filled die could have been repaired by re-engraving the vertical lines? What coin is this? It might be possible to track the die fill and repair  by looking at other examples .

Jerry

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
28 minutes ago, jelida said:

That is interesting, I wonder whether a partly filled die could have been repaired by re-engraving the vertical lines? What coin is this? It might be possible to track the die fill and repair  by looking at other examples .

Jerry

Thanks for your reply Jerry! 

Your explanation makes more sense to me. 

This is from a 1893 reverse N penny, yes most probably you will be able to see it in other 1893 pennies. 

Cheers 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My 1893 penny shows the same feature:

1289966307_1893D12NF136shield.JPG.c036481b462b88688dca66424fdcaca3.JPG

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So do my 1893 over 2 pennies (all three) but not my plain 1893's.

Jerry

1893 over 2 missing line.jpg

1893 over 2.jpg

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting. My 1893 is not 3 over 2:

715505979_1893D12NF1361red.thumb.JPG.506873ad54ff115ac38dcb7dad9343a2.JPG

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 minutes ago, Paddy said:

Interesting. My 1893 is not 3 over 2:

715505979_1893D12NF1361red.thumb.JPG.506873ad54ff115ac38dcb7dad9343a2.JPG

Yet it looks the same flaw. Not sure what to make of that. Does yours have the bulge under the upper loop of the ‘3’ that you see on 3/2 coins?

Jerry

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Not as far as I can see. (I am notoriously bad at spotting variations!):

1835748708_1893D12NF136date.JPG.1b61b4f8bf63529e7e0586e4784be462.JPG

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No, I can’t see it either. I wonder whether this flaw was on a master that was used to make several dies/dates over the 1892 to 93 period. You have a nice doubled inner circle to the lower left of the date too! (Spellcheck initially converted ‘doubled inner’ to ‘double dinner’ , quite a nice interpretation I thought!).

Jerry

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Neither my 1892 or 1894 show any sign of the missing bar.

Interesting the double inner circle - I hadn't noticed that before. As I suggested, I am blind to variations until someone rubs my nose in it!

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've just looked at 8 photos of 1893 over 2 and they all feature that weakness in the horizontal bar.

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, there really ought to be some 1892’s with the flaw, unless there was just a single batch of flawed 1892 dies which were all updated into the progression of  altered ‘3’s including the clear ‘ 3/2’ that Gouby shows in detail. Or the ‘3/2’ could be regarded as a ‘2/3’,  an 1893 die mis-repaired using a ‘2’ punch, which I do not favour. Either way I feel that there must have been a flawed master die to enable the missing line to occur on dies producing both overstrike and normal coins.

Jerry

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have an 1892 & 94, but no 93 yet. Anyhow, this isn't on my 92 or 94. I'll try to share my 92 

260299594.jpg

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 2/21/2024 at 1:13 PM, Mario said:

I think, my is just a normal 3.

20240221_130730.jpg

that looks as though it COULD be a 3/2?

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

An 1893 over 2 i had ,tried to make the shield larger but would not allow me to post the picture 😀

328083502_2123555077835279_4673309918539656861_n.jpg

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
29 minutes ago, PWA 1967 said:

An 1893 over 2 i had ,tried to make the shield larger but would not allow me to post the picture 😀

328083502_2123555077835279_4673309918539656861_n.jpg

Yes, yours has the missing line too Pete.  Seems to be pretty much a feature of all 3/2’s,  possibly many of the minor degree dies Gouby shows too. 
I see that Richard’s website has been updated to include this feature,  though I don’t think that the filled die repair and the overstrike are directly associated in that 1893 coins that are clearly not overstrikes, even minimally displayed, can also have the line flaw.

Jerry

Edited by jelida
Typo and addition
  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I got the wrong end of the stick with the initial post. I took the missing horizontal bit to be the weakness in the right arm of St. George's cross - where the arrow was pointing. Jerry's point makes sense.

FWIW, none of the 92s here have a missing line.

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Rob, you just did this forum section's 100,000th posting....

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×