The Vanishing Indian - ground wear or die error?

[marcomo]

Dug this Indian penny recently. The reverse is quite legible, the obverse is completely missing.

I've looked at it with a loupe, no sign of anything on the obverse.

If the ground did it, what chemical reaction would cause one side to wear so completely and the other not at all?

 

[vlad]

with similar problems as to an unequal amount of remaining detail on each side.
From prior discussions most people believe it to be the top surface being exposed to various chemicals such as fertilizers, weed killers or related lawn/garden products.
You can couple this with wear from being handled while in circulation.
(If a coin left the Mint with only one side struck it would be mentioned in the Red Book, or Cherry Pickers Guide.)

 

[rferrari]

Ground mineralization, chemicals and wear can account for the condition. I have been detecting for 25+ years and coin condition is always a surprise. Peace Roy

 

[Elton]

Fertilizer does it. Old home sites, and fields, that were working farms for years, "that have been fertilized" produce many copper cents like yours.

 

[Mega]

Modern chemicals that man uses for fertilizer and also animal urine and droppings if it was a pasture/farm site for years,the ammonia in the urine can cause major problems.

 

[MarkCZ]

Indian Head pennies in WV soil often times comes out like that, they corrode worse (come out of the ground worse) then their copper counter part.
I mainly focus on the date of a coin (obverse side) then the reverse side. Now a worse on one side than the other could be which side of the coin
was facing upward. In the right location where at some point lawn chemicals were used the side facing up can take more of a beating due to the corrosive
chemicals just laying on top of the coin, leaving the under side a little more protected.

Mark

 

[Dang]

Millions and more millions of those pennies were minted and since 2003 I have found only one.
Nice find.

 

[john4840]

Dug this Indian penny recently. The reverse is quite legible, the obverse is completely missing.

I've looked at it with a loupe, no sign of anything on the obverse.

If the ground did it, what chemical reaction would cause one side to wear so completely and the other not at all?

It looks like to me it could be a mint error not a die error. In this particular case it would be called a brockage, were two blank planchets are fed into where the dies strike the planchets on top of each other. The one on the bottom would have the reverse minted and the one on the top has obverse minted. Each coin would have a blank side. I would have it checked out professionally to make sure. Neat find!

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Typical toast..... the 1st large cent ever dug was badly pitted on head side and in great shape on tail side.. your tail side is badly corroded and the head side didn't fair as good thats all i see..

 

[marcomo]

Thanks for all the opinions. My gut feeling is the ground did it, but zero trace of even the slightest obverse makes me less than completely sure.

Good idea John, and thanks for the error education. Next time I go to the coin shop for 2X2s I'll show the owner. He's been in the business since the 60's and knows his stuff.

 

[vlad]

They are for sale............at various sites.
http://coinquest.com/cgi-bin/cq/coins?main_coin=20187