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A planchet is a round metal disk that is ready to be struck as a coin
Coin

A coin is a piece of hard material, usually metal or a metallic material, usually in the shape of a Disk , and most often issued by a government....
. An older word for planchet is flan. They are also referred to as blanks.

preparation of the flan or planchet has varied over the years. In ancient times, the flan was heated before striking because the metal that the coin dies were made out of was not as hard as dies today, and the dies would have worn faster and broken sooner had the flan not been heated to a high temperature to soften it.This is preparation of the flan or planchet.

y's dies are made from hardened steel
Hardened steel

The term hardened steel is often used for a plain-carbon steel steel that has been given the heat treatments of quenching followed by tempering....
, and the presses use many thousands of pounds
Pound-force

The pound-force or simply pound is a Units of measurement of force....
 of force to strike coins (varying according to the size of the coin and the complexity and relief of the design).






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A planchet is a round metal disk that is ready to be struck as a coin
Coin

A coin is a piece of hard material, usually metal or a metallic material, usually in the shape of a Disk , and most often issued by a government....
. An older word for planchet is flan. They are also referred to as blanks.

History

The preparation of the flan or planchet has varied over the years. In ancient times, the flan was heated before striking because the metal that the coin dies were made out of was not as hard as dies today, and the dies would have worn faster and broken sooner had the flan not been heated to a high temperature to soften it.This is preparation of the flan or planchet.

Modern Striking

Today's dies are made from hardened steel
Hardened steel

The term hardened steel is often used for a plain-carbon steel steel that has been given the heat treatments of quenching followed by tempering....
, and the presses use many thousands of pounds
Pound-force

The pound-force or simply pound is a Units of measurement of force....
 of force to strike coins (varying according to the size of the coin and the complexity and relief of the design). In addition, today's coins have much lower relief than ancient coins. Because of this, the planchet no longer needs to be heated immediately before striking, although it is annealed
Annealing (metallurgy)

Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing changes in its properties such as strength and hardness....
 by heating and slow cooling which softens the coin.

Preparation

Planchetcoil
Preparation of the modern planchet involves several steps. First, the metal (or metals in the case of clad or multilayered coins) is rolled out into a large roll or sheet of the correct thickness. This process is often done by third parties, not by the mint
Mint (coin)

A mint is an industrial facility which manufacturing coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is normally related in a fashion that more closely ties to the political situation of an era....
 itself. These flat rolls or sheets of metal are then punched out into round blanks that are a little larger than the coin being struck. The blanks are then subjected to an annealing process that softens the metal through heating to approximately 750 degrees Celsius
Celsius

Celsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death....
 (1400 degrees Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit , who proposed it in 1724. Today, the scale has largely been replaced by the Celsius scale; it is still in use for non-scientific purposes in the United States and a few other countries such as Belize....
) and are then quickly quenched in water. They are then washed to remove residue from the annealing process and dried. The blanks then go through an upsetting mill that raises the rim on the edge of the coin.

Completion

Finally, the planchet is struck. After striking, it becomes a coin and is no longer a planchet. Occasionally, a planchet will escape the mint without having been struck. This is a blank planchet error, and is usually worth a few dollars for modern coins. Occasionally, blank planchets can be rare and valuable, such is the case for Morgan Dollar
Morgan Dollar

The Morgan Dollar is a silver United States dollar coin. The dollars were mint ed from 1878 to 1904 and again for one more year in 1921. The Morgan Dollar is named after its designer, George T....
 blank planchets, although authentication is highly recommended for such pieces as they would be fairly easy to counterfeit.

See also

  • Coin
    Coin

    A coin is a piece of hard material, usually metal or a metallic material, usually in the shape of a Disk , and most often issued by a government....
  • Coin Die
  • Mint
    Mint (coin)

    A mint is an industrial facility which manufacturing coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is normally related in a fashion that more closely ties to the political situation of an era....


External links

  • An extensive description of the minting process through the ages
  • (flash required)