Zoinsy
Joined: 29-Aug-2019
Posts: 19
Posted: 12-Apr-2021, 20:05
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Posted: 12-Apr-2021, 20:05
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I don't know if it's more common among British coins, but when I look at hammered coins on Ebay, a large amount of them show signs of having been bent at some point, as if they've been through a meat grinder or something. I know they're generally quite thin, but to me, normal use doesn't quite explain how so many of these coins end up so deformed.
I've tried Google, but it only turns up information on "how to unbend hammered coins".
ZacUK
Numista team
Joined: 3-Jan-2011
Posts: 12646
Posted: 12-Apr-2021, 20:19
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Posted: 12-Apr-2021, 20:19
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A thin silver coin bends easily.
A thin forgery plated with silver does not.
So a shopkeeper or trader bent them to see if they were real.
Offa
Joined: 25-Jul-2020
Posts: 558
Posted: 12-Apr-2021, 21:56
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Posted: 12-Apr-2021, 21:56
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Unbending a hammered coin is best done by a specialist as it can easily damage and even break the flan.
In my Liverpool home
UKdetech
Joined: 2-May-2022
Posts: 1
Posted: 2-May-2022, 18:58
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Posted: 2-May-2022, 18:58
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In the UK thousands of hammered coins are found every year by metal detectorists in ploughed fields or fields that had been ploughed before. The ploughing easily bends the thin silver hammered coins. However quite a few manage to avoid any damage at all after hundreds of years of ploughing. They are quite small normally so cam escape damage most times. Sometimes a rare deep ploughing brings coins of all types to detectable range and even large silver and gold coins can be in undamaged condition. But many thin coins and objects suffer due to the plough. Metal detectorists often say things like ‘saved from the plough’ or ‘Well Saved’. Modern ploughs are powerful so eventually all buried objects in ploughed fields will suffer damage. Also animal urine and fertilisers can damage metal in the ground, especially copper alloy.
Rarely, detectorists can damage coins during extraction when objects are at an angle giving a false pinpoint location. But the vast majority are damaged by the plough.
Pogirl
Joined: 6-Nov-2023
Posts: 1
Posted: 6-Nov-2023, 00:20
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Posted: 6-Nov-2023, 00:20
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Hi,
it could be a love token - Usually curved over on two sides?
tdziemia
Numista team
Joined: 26-Apr-2018
Posts: 2553
Posted: 6-Nov-2023, 02:50
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Posted: 6-Nov-2023, 02:50
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I am not an expert on the hammered coin process (even though most of my collection is hammered), but …
I think the planchets were heated to make the metal flow more easily into the design. This would also mean that as the coins were ejected from the dies, they would deform (bend) more easily.
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