A group of 1982 500 Lira coins struck by the same dies and within the same collar display a deformed collar that also rotated between strikes. A large collar chip located on the edge of the coin occupies a different position relative to the design in three representative specimens.

Although struck fully within the collar, the edge of the coin is beveled, reflecting the fact that the working face of the collar had a sloping cross-sectional profile. The intermittent reeding, which should be vertically oriented, is instead obliquely oriented.

Deformation of the collar also produced a coin that is slightly out-of-round and wider than normal. Width is about 0.8 millimeters greater than normal, while the coin’s north-south diameter is 0.5 millimeters greater than the east-west diameter.

Collar deformation this severe is rarely encountered because the collar is ordinarily harder than the dies. A collar is much more likely to break than deform. This collar did both.

Images courtesy of Cosimo Manisi, with the assistance of Andrea Del Pup.