This happens when a coin is struck with a die that doesn’t fully confine the metal of the coin. This is called a wide struck coin. This causes the coin to be “stretched” beyond its normal width, making it look wider than usual and stretching out its features.
What Is A Broad Struck Coin? Are Broadstrike Error Coins Valuable? Here’s Everything You Want To Know About Broadstrikes
Broadstrikes happen when the metal blank (or planchet) of the coin is not properly contained in the collar during the minting process. This lets it spread outwards.
What Makes a Coin Broad Struck?
If you hit the coin with too much force or if the collar die is missing or not working right, you will get a broad strike. The collar die holds the planchet and helps shape the coin. A well-struck coin has a collar that holds the planchet in place while the die stamps the picture into it.
But if the collar is missing or broken, the metal can expand outwards past the usual size of the coin, which is what causes the broadstruck effect.
A planchet, which is the metal disk used to make a coin, might be too big for the machine sometimes, or it might be struck without a collar at all, which makes it even more likely that the strike will be wide. This mistake makes coins with:
A width that is bigger than what is normally found on coins.
- Features that are flattened and spread out on both the front and back sides.
- No clear edge, since the collar helps make the edge in most cases.
- How Can You Tell If a Coin Is Broadstruck?
- To spot a broadstruck coin, you need to look for certain signs that something is wrong with its size and appearance:
Broadstruck coins will look wider than normal coins of the same type because their diameter is bigger than usual. The extra width is because the metal has grown bigger than the collar normally allows.
Shapes that are flattened or deformed: As the metal in the coin expands, the image that is stamped by the dies can become squished or distorted, especially around the edges.
Edge details that are missing or not complete: a normal coin has a clear edge, but a broadstruck coin may not have one because the metal has spread beyond its original borders.
Wider rim: The collar makes the coin’s rim, so a broadstruck coin may not have a clear, defined rim at all, or it may have a very wide, unclear rim that looks bigger than usual.
Images and letters on a broadstruck coin may look off-center or twisted because the coin has been stretched in different directions.
Are Broadstrike Error Coins Worth Something?
It depends on a lot of things, like how rare they are, how good their state is, what kind of coin it is, and how much people want it on the market. This is why broadstrikes might be interesting to collectors:
Rarity: Broadstrikes are mistake coins, which means they are rare and not seen as often as properly struck coins. Some broadstruck errors may be very rare in some coin types, which makes collectors want them very much.
Numismatic Value: Broadstrikes are often seen as interesting and one-of-a-kind items because they have features that make them different from regular coins. People who like to collect error coins might find broadstruck examples especially interesting because of how they look.
See More: Rare Pennies You Should Hold Onto… Including The 1943 Penny
Demand from Coin Collectors: Demand from coin collectors is a big part of what a coin is worth. Collectors may be ready to pay more for a broadstruck coin if it comes from a popular series or has a rare date or mintmark.