What has caused the reeded edge of halves to be missing?

[clovis97]

I get a box of halves a week, and I am finding, on average, 100 JFK halves that are completely missing the reeded edges.

The reeded edges appear to have been ground off completely, and many of them show wear patterns that indicate that the edges have been machined or aggressively sanded as the coin spun until it is completely smooth. One aspect to note is that the two faces of the coins show no wear other than usual circulation.

Anyone else see these coins?

Anyone know what causes this, or how the edges have been worn or ground off?

Thanks in advance!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[StevoCBR]

Could be a CRHer's way of marking his dumps. If so that's pretty messed up on a destructive level, but I would imagine also illegal. 1 or 10 I would say probably somebody messing around, but hundreds?

 

[JJtheRollHunter]

Slot machines.

 

[enamel7]

As JJ said, these are known as casino halves. The constant loading of the coins into the slots wear away the reeding.
HH
enamel7

 

[clovis97]

As JJ said, these are known as casino halves. The constant loading of the coins into the slots wear away the reeding.
HH
enamel7

It is an understandable theory, but I am a long way from Vegas. It is just hard to imagine that thousands of these smooth edged coins came from casinos in Vegas.

I would say that there was easily 150 of these in the last box I received, but I bet the count was close to 250.

It makes me wonder if:

1. These Kennedy halves were used in a shop class, where the students have to use a lathe to mill down the reeded edges so the coin is an exact diameter.
2. The JFK's are being used as a wear item in some type of machine as a spacer, bearing, or wear item. I know it sounds crazy, but could be possible.
3. There are some super aggressive coin counting machines that are eating away the reeds.

BTW, the examples I am finding range in dates from 1971 up to 2002. I still haven't seen any NIFC missing all the reeds.

 

[FreedomUIC]

As JJ said, these are known as casino halves. The constant loading of the coins into the slots wear away the reeding.
HH
enamel7

It is an understandable theory, but I am a long way from Vegas. It is just hard to imagine that thousands of these smooth edged coins came from casinos in Vegas.

I would say that there was easily 150 of these in the last box I received, but I bet the count was close to 250.

It makes me wonder if:

1. These Kennedy halves were used in a shop class, where the students have to use a lathe to mill down the reeded edges so the coin is an exact diameter.
2. The JFK's are being used as a wear item in some type of machine as a spacer, bearing, or wear item. I know it sounds crazy, but could be possible.
3. There are some super aggressive coin counting machines that are eating away the reeds.

BTW, the examples I am finding range in dates from 1971 up to 2002. I still haven't seen any NIFC missing all the reeds.

Casino Halfs. Get them all the time and I live in FL. Long ways from Vegas and Atlantic City.

 

[treeslayer]

I get them all the time. Its from yhe slot machines. I know most casinos did away with coins, so i guess theres even more around now.

 

[clovis97]

Thank you for the replies!

I just find it odd that it is common to find 2002's without reeds.

I have read that some casinos still use coins, but overall, coin slots have been phased out. Anyone know when coin slots were phased out, for the most part?

It just seems that these smooth edges are soooo worn...I don't see any that have partial reeds...it seems to be all or nothing.

I'm pretty hard headed, and it just seems that the wear is just too deep to think that slot machine use could do such damage...but what do I know?