Defaced Belgian Coin

[Henk]

I have a 20 Francs/4 Belgas coin from Belgium, (KM 102). This is a large, 37 mm nickel coin with a weight of 20 grams. It has been defaced bij stamping with a die with lines (Reverse) and with a grid (Obverse). I think this was done officially, probably at the mint, to make the coin not current so it could be sold for its scrap value.

This coin was highly unpopular.The total number struck was: 18.979.000. The number returned to the mint was: 18.872.000. So a maximum of 107.000 (0,56 %) is still available. The coin was issued in 1931 and struck in 1931 and 1932, in both French and Dutch (Flemish) variants. It became without value on 1 december 1935. (information obtained from Jaarboek EGMP 2009 page 191). Defacing would have been done before this date.

I am interested in information about the, official defacing of coins. And also if other examples of these defaced Belgian coins are known.

[FosseWay]

This kind of thing was evidently in fashion in the 1930s  - perhaps due to large swings in the nickel price.

I have two Romanian 100 lei coins of the same issue (KM 54), each cancelled using a different method. One has ANULAT in long thin letters punched or rolled over both sides. The other has a hole bored in the middle.

[Henk]

Inteesting information and photo's. Especially the coin stamped with ANULAT. Never seen this type of cancellation before. It resembles the overprinting of Banknotes to cancel them. Punching holes is of course also a method of defacing, like cutting in two or making a large incision. The last two were often used to deface fake coins.

I enclose photos of a recent cancellation of two Dutch coins, a nickel 2 1/2 Gulden and a  25 cents coin. This cancellation was made because of the introduction of the Euro. For this purpose a special machine was onstructed by the Ducth firm of "Kusters Engineering"

https://www.royaldutchkusters.com/coin-unwrapping-coin-crushing-systems

On this page a film can be found which shows the machine in operation.

[Henk]

Another method of defacing coins is by a deep cut. As an example I show these two coins from Surinam, minted in Utrecht where also the cut was applied as these coins were not minted properly.

The photo's are copied from the catalog of MPO (Heritage Europe) auction May 2003. Lots 2143 and 2145

[brandm24]

The US Mint uses a machine called a waffleing press to scrap either production coins or blanks that aren't up to standard. There's actually an aftermarket for them and they're fairly popular among collectors. Many examples have become available because there's no real controls placed on disposition of these errors. PCGS, one of the major third party graders even slabs examples and assigns a grade to them.

Attached are images of a waffled Roosevelt Dime, an Eisenhower Dollar and a Statehood Quarter blank.

Bruce

[Henk]

I noticed that another example of a defaced Begium 4 Belga coin was posted on this forum in 2007 by Aernout: http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php/topic,18485.msg126593.html#msg126593

This one was defaced in the same way although the grid die was applied to the reverse. On my coin this die is applied to the obverse.