1955-1989 Italian 100 Lire Thickness Variation [solved]

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This message aims at: requesting the creation or the modification of a currency or denomination in the catalogue

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Hello, first time using these forums, so please let me know if this is out of place.

       I was putting my coins in 2x2s, and came to my three Italian 100 Lira coins, one from ‘62, one from ’77, one from ‘78, (N#304), and noticed something odd when they were stacked. The 1962 coin appears to be slightly thicker than the other two. After measuring, it appears to be a bit more than 2 mm thick, with the ’77 and ‘78 being a bit less than 2 mm thick. I don’t have an accurate measure for length values that small, but I am pretty sure this marks a significant variation.  The '62 coin is also .08g-.09g heavier, while my two others measure exactly the same (coins are roughly the same condition, if anything the older one is a bit more worn, no big big differences).

     If valid, I am not sure if this would warrant a new page, a notation in the variants (e.g. 1962 R (Thin) vs. 1962 R (Thick)), or a comment in the page itself (that is for someone more knowledgable about Numista itself). I am also not sure if this is valid. Maybe I have a counterfeit, maybe I have a mint error. Maybe the Italian government sometime in the early 70s, during the Years of Lead, changed the coins to use a tiny bit less metal. Maybe there was a bit of variation in minting throughout, I only have three of these coins, maybe the thickness varied, but the idea of the coins getting smaller does make sense historically. 

     If you have a couple of these coins, could you verify the thickness? If it does vary, then that might be worthy of note on the coin's page imo. 

Thanks!

 

Pics: (Older coin on the Right each time)

 

Your three coins are well within normal manufacturing tolerance for modern coins, typically +/- 4% .

Okay, thanks! Was just wondering if mint variation covered something that apparently large. :)

Status changed to Done (Jarcek, 3 Dec 2025, 10:46)

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