1924 indian die penny

[echidna]

There have been some recent posts about 1924 indian die pennies with a couple of superb examples shown.
So I decided to photo up mine.
These are known for poor strikes.
Must be THE worst obverse strike I've ever seen.
It looks a bit like PMD but I believe its original.
Perhaps had a light clean to fix some green stuff.
Obverse surfaces are remarkable though.
PCGS would hate it I reckon but I love it.
One of my favourites.

[stevo1962]

It certainly has an unusual looking obverse Echidna

[autocoupler]

Lovely reverse on that one echidna. I have one with the same orange peel obverse that I regarded as being aVF grade. My coin is obviously not even close in grade to yours, but the lack of field marks on the obverse sometimes tempts me to have a rethink. Will post a pic when the camera batteries are recharged. And to think I married a Marshall:kez_11:
The orange peel effect is not as prominent. Due in some part to the camera operator!

[nealeffendi]

I'm drooling at my end.
For those who think that obverse die was at the end of its life, that obverse is an EARLY die state; Sydney had got dozens of pairs of dies back in 1920 and didn't use most of them, so either the die was already a horrible surface reject that somehow was kept or it deteriorated and was then used (sometime in the period 1924-26) . It got worse as it developed a decent die crack through VDG BRITT but the lumpy surface didn't get any lumpier, my Indians are not good enough to be certain but I think the surface got slightly better as the repeated striking smoothed out the lumps a tad.

[Robster]

Supercool pic, great info.!!

[robbiegal]

so were these the classic 'rusty die'?
it is a term that is used often but I have been advised that only those very early dies that were transported by ship fell victim to that problem

[nealeffendi]

so were these the classic 'rusty die'?
it is a term that is used often but I have been advised that only those very early dies that were transported by ship fell victim to that problem

There was more than one '24 Indian with the orange peel (the 2 coins above are from different dies). Perhaps a whole bunch of dies were damaged. If they did arrive by ship in that condition then the quandary is that India sent 20 pair of UNFINISHED dies. Why would Melbourne go to the effort of finishing them to fit the local presses when they were so bad?
More likely is that the damage happened after they were finished.
If they were damaged soon after Melbourne finished them then that might explain why Melbourne sent a few more (Sydney got 27 of them, reportedly all the 20 ex India plus 7 more hubbed in Melbourne).
So did Melbourne send the dies to Sydney by a leaky steamer?