Does your Shilling have an Ear?

[MobOfRoos]

An article in the recent C & B magazine talked about a rare variety of coins which show the "ear" of the ram in the centre of the horn. It got me looking at my own shillings. Most of them had nothing at all, or perhaps a few tiny dots. Even the 2011 Ram dollar had nothing. But then I came across this one.

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So how rare are these? And what causes them? are they a result of an unusually good strike?

[trout]

An article in the recent C & B magazine talked about a rare variety of coins which show the "ear" of the ram in the centre of the horn. It got me looking at my own shillings. Most of them had nothing at all, or perhaps a few tiny dots. Even the 2011 Ram dollar had nothing. But then I came across this one.





So how rare are these? And what causes them? are they a result of an unusually good strike?

I have never heard of the ear on the rams head.
I have just gone through 10 oz of 3d's and my eyes are buggered, I'll check mine out tomorrow.

[Mister T]

My understanding was that the ear was part of the design but it was prone to breaking off the die (or something else which results in it not showing up). The 1937 shilling on the cover of the latest issue shows quite a good example of the ear, presumably because only a handful were struck.
Looking at my two post-1936 shillings, one has half an ear and the other has three dots.

Interesting that the Ram $1 doesn't have it though.
I always thought the ear was due to a chipped die or something.

[Mister T]

Actually it's probably due to a die fill that it doesn't show up on a lot of coins.

[trout]

I just had a good look at my Masters in silver 50 cent coin (Rams head ) and the area in the horn is flat................No ear.
I am of the opinion that the "ear" may be a cud or some other error

[gnome]

Do the dots/ear appear on the proof shillings.

[trout]

I had a look through a few of my shillings and found 1 the same as yours plus a few with dits and faint "Ears".
It may be a metal flow phenomenon.

[accumulator]

This Ramstrike has a pretty prominent ear. :good:

Maybe some of the dies had the ear cut in properly & others did'nt as this looks like a perfectly formed ear under a 10 X loupe.

[Mister T]

Looks like there's an ear in the 1991 50c:

[planchetflaw]

Just checked from a bag that were meant to be ex-roll.

Found a completely flat '44 shilling and a three dot '44 shilling.

Flat '44:
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Dots '44 (I got the focus wrong, sorry):
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Both side by side (lighting sucked):
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EDIT: Of the 40 or so near-unc to choice unc pre 46 shillings I looked at, pretty much all had dots. Only the one above was completely flat.