1966 dime rotated dies

gumby1234

FredWeinberg

Based on the photos, it's rotated 90-95 degrees Counter-Clockwise

Jimnight

Yep .

Southside7

I like it!

gumby1234

@FredWeinberg Yes I was thinking 95 degrees CCW. No degree mentioned on the holder.

JBK

Nothing subtle about that one!

johnny9434

thats a nice score

Hydrant

👍

NumisOxide

Cool

gumby1234

@JBK well there is some subtle toning on the obv

Steven59

Neat rotated die strike.

pmh1nic

It's been 20+ years since I visited the Philadelphia Mint so forgive my confusion on this. My understanding is the obverse and reverse are struck at the same time. If that’s true it means the worker at the mint that secured the die in place wasn't paying attention or the die somehow rotated during operation of the press. In either case you would expect in a run of coins there would be many where obverse and reverse were misaligned until someone realized the error. I would guess many error coins would be recycled through the process but somehow a few escape. Can someone clear up for me how this misalignment happens?

airplanenut

@pmh1nic said:
It's been 20+ years since I visited the Philadelphia Mint so forgive my confusion on this. My understanding is the obverse and reverse are struck at the same time. If that’s true it means the worker at the mint that secured the die in place wasn't paying attention or the die somehow rotated during operation of the press. In either case you would expect in a run of coins there would be many where obverse and reverse were misaligned until someone realized the error. I would guess many error coins would be recycled through the process but somehow a few escape. Can someone clear up for me how this misalignment happens?

Without knowing for sure, I'm going to guess that there is nothing to set the position of the dies other than the operator (ie, there isn't a notch so the die can only be installed in one orientation). Since there is an allowable tolerance of a double-digit number of degrees, I'd assume it's either eyeballed or measured, but if the operator is being lazy or forgets, then that measurement doesn't happen. Unlike errors where the coin grows in size (like a double strike or off-center), nothing other than a spot-check will catch this, so again, if someone isn't paying close attention, a whole batch like these can get out. Since the error isn't obvious if you aren't looking for it, I'd be most just pass through hands in commerce and no one things twice. Also bear in mind that it's only in recent years that the Mint has really cracked down on errors getting out, particularly when it comes to make sure sorting machines catch the big ones (which, again, this coin would bypass anyway).

ricko

Nice misalignment. Something I rarely check for.... Likely many have passed through my hands over the years. Cheers, RickO

gumby1234

@ricko Its a very interesting area to collect. Hard to find modern coins with 90 to 180 degree rotations. Especially in UNC.

rec78

@gumby1234 said:
@ricko Its a very interesting area to collect. Hard to find modern coins with 90 to 180 degree rotations. Especially in UNC.

Most people don't look for them. I search many rolls of coins, I usually do not check for rotated reverses on most. There could be many available if someone ones to look for them. This is an easy to miss error.

gumby1234

@rec78 i don't know about you, but when I look at coins I flip it over to see the reverse. Rotated dies are much easier to spot than most double dies or RPM/OMM varieties.

rec78

@gumby1234 said:
@rec78 i don't know about you, but when I look at coins I flip it over to see the reverse. Rotated dies are much easier to spot than most double dies or RPM/OMM varieties.

I do turn them over but I am not programed to search for rotated dies. I will try to change my approach in the future but old habits are hard to change. Have you found any rotated dies while coin roll searching?

gumby1234

@rec78 I look for them. I have never found one that is more than 45 degrees in my searching. 90 to 180 degree rotation is optimal.

gumby1234

Also any with 15 degrees or less bring no premium.