Today I present a FREAK that fooled me, not that I am expert in the field of Freaks Irregulars, Defects, and Oddities, still I thought I knew a thing or two.  Failure is said to be a great teacher so why not pass along my new found knowledge to you.  I still am confident of his inclusion into my series as he is a FREAK, just not exactly the one I was looking for.  The particular oddity I thought I had so cleverly acquired via worldwide swap meet looked for all intentional purposes to be a die adjustment strike at least so I thought.  So what are the telltale signs of a die adjustment strike, generally it is weak in appearance on both sides, oops my bad coins have three sides but more on that later, as the dies stop just short of bringing up a full strike.  So with this error there is nothing wrong with either the dies nor with the planchet, this is just a case of the spacing between the two dies being too wide to exert enough force to cause the metal of the planchet to flow into all the recesses elements of the dies to impart the obverse and reverse images as intended.  BTW, text speak, this is not to be confused with a die alignment strike, which is a case where the spacing may be correct but hammer die is out of alignment with the anvil die resulting in one side of the coin being off center while the flip side is spot on.  Sorry that is not a leader for the next show as I do not have an example of that type either, so where were we?  So not to long after I received my RAW fiend in the mail I decided he could stand a trip to Florida to get hammered, I mean SLABBED.  

Once in the queue it seemed like forever until I finally got word on my little oddity and it was not as I had hoped.  True he was still a FREAK but his mug shot read OBVERSE AND REVERSE STRUCK THRU.  How could it be?  I have encountered stuck thru before though on one side, never both.  What the heck, was the planchet wrapped before being struck, I mean crazier things have been produced during the sixties by the branch mints.  So then I waited some more for my IRREGULAR half to arrive safely back at home.  Still I was confused as to where had I gone wrong and no the reeding along the edge was totally intact, practically bold, so it was very doubtful the planchet was wrapped before striking.  So I decided to reach out to someone who makes a living out of selling these types of curiosities and despite a hurricane bearing down upon his state of residence he responded to my email query the next day.  The last thing to check to confirm a die adjustment strike is the reeding as it too would be affected by the lack of force not allowing the metal to properly flow into the collar, the third side, duh.  He speculated based upon NGC assessment of the piece that the reeding was sharp, naturally he was right, so must have been a case of both dies still being coated in grease at the time of my FREAKS creation.  So unusual in that regard due to both sides being struck thru but it was not the example of a die adjustment strike I was looking for.

So to quote a much watched, very much not PC British chap who gets to drive some really cool cars, and even fired a steam locomotive, I LEARNED A THING.  So for the record here are the stats on the latest member of the menagerie 1968 D 50C, OBVERSE AND REVERSE, STRUCK THRU, MINT ERROR.  No grade was given, but for this piece that is okay as it was the type and though still not the particular oddity I had hoped it still has a role to play in my show.

 Until next time………………………….avoid my folly