Names ‘trime,’ ‘thrip’ didn’t fly

Is the trime and the thrip the same coin by different names?

Technically no, as “trime” was applied to the U.S. 3-cent piece to fit with “dime.” “Thrip” was another candidate for the coin, but it was originally applied to the English threepence. Official efforts to use either or both for the U.S. coin failed to catch the public fancy.

Is there a difference between a bent love token and a bent witches coin?

The old custom was that a coin was bent once or broken in two as a love token, with half to each lover. A coin was bent twice to ward off witches. This eventually grew into the lucky coin. Back in those days coins usually were much thinner that today’s, and easily bent. This was especially true of the Massachusetts silver coins, which were popular as a protection from witches.

Three Countries, One Price Guide!

My bride-to-be and I are both collectors. Would you repeat the list of wedding customs you ran some time back?

There are literally dozens of such customs, so pick and choose. The bride may put a coin in her shoe or her right stocking. The bride’s shoes will bring luck if they are purchased entirely with pfennigs, pennies or cents – although that one went out of fashion when shoe prices went over $2. The bride should hide some coins just before the wedding to ensure she isn’t marrying the wrong man. Save some coins, because it is also a custom to throw coins from the vehicle on the way to the church. In some places the way will be blocked and the bride must pay a toll to pass through.

What’s all the fuss about doubled dies? I’ve found dozens of them.

Oh? If I was a betting man, I’d wager that none of the coins you’ve found are doubled dies as they are just not that common. Even an expert would have difficulty in turning up one or two after looking through thousands of dollars’ worth of coins. I get several letters a month from collectors who include lengthy lists of coins they believe to be doubled dies. They turn out to have doubling caused by the die bouncing on the struck coin, classed as machine doubling damage, or “MDD.”

I have a 1940 cent that has a “1” over the “0” in the date. Is this a listed overdate?

As an educated guess, your 1/0 in the date probably is damage to the “0” on a normal 1940 date cent. What frequently happens is that some sharp object shears the metal, shoving it into a ridge on top of the “0.” Check it with a magnifier, and if this isn’t what you have, let me know, and I’ll be glad to take a look at it. It’s much the same thing as the “slanted 1” in the dates on many of the 1941, 1951 and 1961 date cents, also damage to the coin and not a minting variety.

I have a gold $2.50 that has an indented line around the obverse just in from the rim. Is this something that happened at the mint?

From your description, this is damage after the coin was minted. I would suspect that it was caused by being crimped into a ring to attach it to a piece of jewelry. Such damage will reduce the value of the piece, probably to the bullion content.

I have a cent that has a very odd edge, and the rims are a different color than normal. Any ideas as to what might have caused it?

Examination of the coin in question showed that it had apparently been pressed against something that was moving rapidly. This caused the edge of the coin to heat up, discoloring the rims. This is often seen on uncirculated coins that display circular scratches or scrapes. Copper-alloy coins will usually display some rather odd purplish colors. The cause: the coins were caught under the fence in a coin counter, and the moving parts scraped them against the sharp edge of the fence.