With October practically here I give you my FREAK without a face.

Yes this member could bring back horrific memories for those old enough to remember the Dallas tragedy that lead to the creation of this coin design displacing the short lived Franklin Half.  Though I do not think the coin designer ever envisioned his creation looking quite like this.  I do not have any memories of this event being no older than the coin itself but I have seen the film clips.  I have heard the multiple theories on who possibly was and possibly who was not the shooter in addition to how many shots were fired.  Truly frightening for his wife, his family, and the country in 1963.  That is not the kind of scary I want to focus on with this piece though it would be hard to gloss over the obvious analogy.

Yes this faceless FREAK with just a wisp of a grin is not for the timid.  Makes me think of those creepy creatures that were all ears and of course a mouth listening for the slightest sound before dispatching their next victim.  Nothing to fear here though as like my others as he is encased in plastic so no harm comes to him nor to us.  The reverse though is not so dramatic granted the eagle is only holding arrows as the talon holding the olive branch is missing which could suggest something.  Maybe it is a tribute to the time of its creation where American was deep into what the politicians commonly refer to as conflicts that the rest of us refer to as a war, more specifically the Vietnam War.  I am probably reading too much into this piece then again I collect pieces because they speak to me, so please humor me.

What I also find intriguing on this piece is the shape of the clip itself.  I imagine the planchet prior to striking was complete except for a crescent shape at roughly the 10 o'clock position that was missing.  Then when it was stuck the metal moved in an effort to fill the void, though not so much as to eliminate any detail from other elements of the design.  I mean the 'D' and 'F' on the reverse are sharp despite being close the empty abyss.  Still the metal did move enough to distort the original radius created from where the first planchet that was created before this planchet was then punched out.  If you have problems envisioning this just take a hole punch and punch a hole out of the paper and then punch another slightly to the right of your first hole.  One piece of paper should be a full circle whereas the other will look like my friend here before he was struck. 

As for the more mundane details, I found this member of my group on worldwide swap meet site that is open day and night, EBay.  He is encapsulated by PCGS which describes him as follows, 1968-D Mint Error 50C, PCGS MS61, 28% Curved Clipped Plan.  I have seen quite a few clips and multi clips offered for 1968, even have one of the latter, but this is the most dramatic I have seen with the date bold and clear.  Lastly, though I pretty much have given it away, using the PDS system in which category does this FREAK reside?

Until next week may your PSL never run dry.....................