THE SHADOW IKE

[robEzerman]

Hello Ike Club Members!

I've held off on these topics since we have submitted a wonderful article for publication in ErrorScope, an article so ground-breaking and revolutionary that it has sat on the Editor's desk of the Coin World, Numismatic News and now CONECA's ErrorScope for almost a year. The writing is good, the contents impecable, but I could hear knees shaking all the way up here in Vermont. . .

But enough's enough! If the next issue of ErrorScope does not include the article, I'll be pulling it from consideration and posting it on our web site.

Even now, I can't reveal all the good info, but this afternoon I found several 72-S SB Ikes put away a while back, I am moved to share three photos of the Earth on the reverse of three of them. See if you can draw some conclusions, and maybe look at the Earth on any 1972 (P) Type-2 while you're thinking.

Oh, heck, if I can locate it, I'll post a photo of the T2 Earth. It will be the first of four photos. Rob

[Sumdunce]

I have an idea, but I believe it is from an email conversation with you or Lee.

I will wait to post it, so as to not taint the decision of others.

V/R



LaMont

[robEzerman]

LaMont, thanks for your forbearance.

I'll add another piece to the puzzle: the hot picture is not the one with no shadow, nor the one with the heavy shadow, nor the 72 CB T2. How to explain the remaining picture in the context of Design Varieties is the conundrum: which 72 SB is the Design Variety? With shadow or without shadow?? Or both???? Rob

[BrianVaile]

For some reason the song lyrics, "Ground control, to Major Tom" Keep
ringing in my ears!
Brian

[Sumdunce]

"I am floating in a most peculiar way..."



S

[jim t]

Hello,any chance that the "R" in LIBERTY has the look of a T-1? Also does the overall look appear like a hard CN pr. strike, unlike the normal satin finish on these silver strikes? Could you show the whole coin so I can compare mine? Thank You.

[robEzerman]

Hi, Jim t,

The 72-S SB Ike is a design Peg Leg and in this feature resembles the Design Peg-Legged Bicentennial Type-1 Ikes.

The finish of the Shadow Ike 72-S SB sub-population varies all over the place just as the finish of the non-Shadow 72-S SB Ikes vary. In other words, the Shadow Ike can not be distinguished by any particular finish.

You'll have to read the article now posted on our Forum as the November Article of the Month which has all the interesting details.

The key fact I was digging for back in October was the variable presentation of the Shadow itself. While only present on about 30% of 72-S SB Ikes, in that 30% it shows in a spectrum from barely visible through midling to easy to see.

That observation defeated me until I noticed that the Shadow image is accompanied by "Extra lunar lines" that hover just off the surface of the moon to the right and left of the Eagle's legs but these can be seen in roughly 60% of 72-S SB Ikes AND, like the Shadow image, these two lines have a full spectrum of fade when present.

Then I noticed that the peg leg of the R (always present, of course) also has a spectrum of fade, from full-footed and plump to skinnier, and I ran some blinded tests that proved to me that the peg leg fades as the Shadow image and the Extra Lunar Lines fade. That led to the conclusions that some treatment on both dies was cumulatively removing metal from their surfaces. Then I put together the fact that proofs in the early Ike era needed re-frosting frequently to maintain their cameo appearance with the observation that the majority of 72-S SB Ikes show some frost (ie, most are not shiny) and the riddle suddenly was solved: periodic re-frosting treatments of the 72-S SB Ike probably included fine abrasion of the fields of the dies. Cumulatively this wiped out the reverse die's shallow in-relief Shadow dimple and the in-relief Exra Lunar lines AND the abrading reduced the amount of field over the peg leg of the R (and other devices) so they show a spectrum of getting skinnier and in lower relief. Rob

[AaronMiller]

Actually the Shadow Ike is the January Article of the Month...

http://ikegroup.org/SHADOW11308.htm

[robEzerman]

Aaron, thanks! Rob