German Prefab Type Varieties
By Patrick Glassford | Saturday, 14 February 2004
The following content comes from Patrick Glassford website which no longer exist. To keep this information available to the public and for a perpetuity reason, we reproduced it here.
Types that occur due to variations (errors) that occur during the creation of the Planchet or the Striking of coinage, concerning the German Prefab Type Planchet.
This is a German prefab Two dollar planchet, which was used before the present method of a separate core and ring being fed to the dies. What is interesting here is that neither the core, or the inner ring were upset prior to its assembly. These types of planchets would probably be more stressful to dies and they would cause the dies to deteriorate faster. If you note on any Two dollar coin there is a raised border around the core. On the prefab planchets the dies had to form that border with out the assistance of the upset type core and ring.
It is interesting to note that all Two dollar blanks examined, have been Burnished.
Burnishing is a process that involves tumbling the planchets in a large drum with small metal pellets. This roughens or dimples the entire surface of the planchet and is helpful in producing the Frosted Cameo-like appearance of the Polar Bear on the struck coin.
Burnished planchets also "slide around" easier and are less likely to get stuck or stick together and cause other problems, like striking errors...
Having the opportunity to examine many of the German made planchets and the two piece Core and Ring sets produced by the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM), there are remarkable differences in the Burnishing. The pieces made by the RCM have a much more pronounced and deeper Burnishing.
The RCM Pieces also appear to be very finely "oiled."
Simply put, the German Type Planchet does not have anywhere near the "shine" to those by the RCM does. They appear "Dry" as they do not appear to be finely "oiled".
Quite few German made blanks have appeared, but that supply will dry out as the prefab type of planchet was phased out in the early part of 1996. In time it could be a key piece in completing a set of Planchets.
Core with Curved Clip
The Images to the right are of a Two dollar coin with a Curved Clip on the core. Generally speaking clips are scarce on modern Canadian coins. This was the 1st known on a Two dollar coin core. This error appeared at the 1997 Fall Torex Show in Toronto and is now in a private collection.
1996 Misaligned Ring Hole on German Prefab Planchet Type
To look at this coin, you could expect to see a curved clip on the outside of the ring. Based on observations of other similar coins. It may be assume, at this time, that it is on a German made prefab type of planchet. These are fabricated in a different manner than the "Rings" Canada produces. We are still gathering information on this error type.
1996 Double Punched Ring Hole, Second Hole Misaligned on German Prefab Planchet Type
It appears that the hole portion of the core was punched out twice. Once on centre and once way off. It is currently believed to be on a German prefab type. If it were on the two piece set currently used, it would also exhibit a curved clip on the outside of the ring. We are still gathering information on this error type.
1996 Off Centre on German Prefab Planchet Type
A genuine Off Centre Two Dollar coin. The arrow indicated an area that was Struck Thru Grease. There was clear evidence on the unstruck portion to identify it as struck on a German Prefab Planchet. The German Prefab Planchet are burnished differently than their Canadian counterparts.
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