Penny Spill in Delaware

[mustbebob]

Anyone else hear about this? Supposedly all blank planchets headed to the mint for stamping.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/09/08/thousands-of-pennies-spill-out-of-overturned-semi-on-i-95/

[jfines69]

That's cool... Except for the driver!!!

[Frank]

Watch a rash of blank planchets show up on the bay in the near future

[JC Stevens]

So were they blanks or planchets? I thought the upset mill was at the mint?

[Frank]

So were they blanks or planchets? I thought the upset mill was at the mint?

Hmmmm...now that I think about it - I thought blanks were punched from metal rolls at the mint too...?

[willbrooks]

Supposedly all blank planchets headed to the mint for stamping.

I agree that is a curious report. I recently visited the mint and the blanks AND planchets are made right there. I watched them unrolling and loading the huge coils of sheet-metal stock into the blanking machines. Either way, I guess there are a lot of road-rash cents out there that are going to corrode into dust very shortly.

[GrumpyEd]

Will, I'm not sure about that. Unless they shifted back to the mint?
Maybe they make some? Maybe just for proofs? Or who knows...

Hmmmm...now that I think about it - I thought blanks were punched from metal rolls at the mint too...?

They buy them from suppliers. Not sure what year they stopped but it may be around 2007 but probably earlier than that for cents.

So were they blanks or planchets? I thought the upset mill was at the mint?

Sounds like they but them already upset, article says:

"The United States Mint will make available all equipment associated with the current blanking, annealing, and upsetting operations in Philadelphia, PA and Denver, CO."

http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v08n42a14.html

[GrumpyEd]

Looks like they do still make 5c and clad planchets at the mint but not cents:

"The United States Mint obtains one-cent coin blanks already made, but produces the blanks for five-cent coins and the cupronickel clad coins from strip. Coin strip is fed into high-speed automatic presses which cut the coin blanks, known as planchets."

https://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/manufacturing.aspx

[willbrooks]

Looks like they do still make 5c and clad planchets at the mint but not cents:

"The United States Mint obtains one-cent coin blanks already made, but produces the blanks for five-cent coins and the cupronickel clad coins from strip. Coin strip is fed into high-speed automatic presses which cut the coin blanks, known as planchets."

https://www.treasury.gov/about/educa...facturing.aspx

That page was last updated in 2010. That doesn't mean it isn't still true, though. The day I was there (which was within the last year) they were making cents and something else, which I forget. So it is entirely possible the stock I saw them using may have been for another denomination. I sure thought it looked like copper though, and just assumed it was for cent-making. Anyway, if they actually were unstruck planchettes, as Bob heard, then obviously they must be sub-contracting that out. Learn something new every day.

[mustbebob]

Here is another link for the spill.

http://6abc.com/traffic/one-lane-reopens-on-i-95-nb-after-penny-spill/1502898/

The article says blank pennies but we don't know if the reporters know the difference between blanks and planchets. They call them 'Pennies' also which is technically incorrect.

It is true that the US Mint does have the cent planchets contracted out to private companies and they are shipped to the mint in large trucks to the Mint to be struck. As far as I know, the upsetting is also done before it gets to the mint. However, I am not positive. From my trips to the mint in 1998 and 1999, the upset mills were all part of the process that the mint has since subbed out.

[Maineman750]

As far as I know, the upsetting is also done before it gets to the mint. However, I am not positive.

Looks to me like the upsetting is done right on the highway.....how can you not be positive ?

[Frank]

If they sub out the blanking now...guess we probably won't see any more clips on cents

[jfines69]

The blanks for pennies are made by contractors... The zinc cores are punched out sent thru the upset mill copper plated then sent to the mint for striking (If I remember correctly???) I am old so we know how that goes

[GrumpyEd]

Bear with me, my memory is good but I screw up dates LOL....

I remember a coin magazine sometime 1984 to 1989.
It was when they were hyping and selling the "yellowjacket cents".
They hyped them as being plated with the wrong metal (I think brass) which caused the yellow color but I sort of think that was all hype and it really might just be that metals mixed with zinc while plating or after plating.

Anyway the article I remember was definitely in the 80s after zinc was used.
And they claimed the "yellowjackets" were created because the planchet supplier was making some cent size planchets that were for a gym tokens (maybe Ballys??) but by mistake they shipped those to the mint and that created the "yellowjacket cents".

I don't believe the story but it makes me think the mint was already outsourcing cent planchets very early after starting to use zinc or why would the article have posed that as the way they were created.

[willbrooks]

I realize now that the copper sheet stock I saw was probably for the center core of whatever clad planchets they were making. Makes sense. Great info, Ed. thanks.