The rarest JFK 1/2 of all?

Placid

With a start price of $4,875.00 I suspect it is.

Link

DanC

Now *that* is unusual... I think I'll stick to trying to get the "regular" proofs first though...

medicain19

That is odd????

newbiecollector

I think it is strange that if this a "real" coin many of the avid collectors would not have been informed and talking about it for a long time.

kranky

I'm trying to figure out how only one side was double-struck.

itsnotjustme

I'm with Kranky... I can only come up with wild speculation on how that happened.

Typing out loud as I think...

All proofs from this era are double struck...

Normally the coin and dies are in identical alignment for each strike...

The obverse die had to rotate...

Creating the offset obverse with no harm to the reverse...

On guy's speculation. Next question: How did it get past their high quality control (or perhaps security) standards?

newbiecollector

Well I will say it agin in a different way..........

How could this get past the avid collectors of these coins and only surface now at a Gazillion dollars?

I don't have an answer I am just interested in how you folks that collect this series could not have ever.....ever .......heard of this.

mdwoods

I think the obverse die must have rotated as well. Do you suppose the coin could have been purchase in a sealed proof set and only recently come to light, or maybe it has been held quietly for some time. Just speckalatin. Mark

newbiecollector

How can it be verified that this is PCGS graded?.... Excuse my ignorance but I do not see any PCGS reisteration number.

What am I missing to see here?

itsnotjustme

You know it is PCGS graded because a reputable dealer of high end coins says it is in one of their major auction listings.

nwcs

I wonder if this is the product of mint employees tinkering around? How could this escape quality control of being put into a proof set?

kranky

Yep, this is fishy. The obverse die rotated precisely and exactly 90 degrees in the interval between the normal two strikes a proof coin receives? I can't imagine that interval to be longer than a split-second.

AND it gets by the quality control people? AND the person assembling the set?

I think this coin had help at the mint. And if the reverse is the hammer die with Kennedys, it would be completely out of the realm of accidental possibility.

keets

wasn't 1983 the same year for the no S proof dimes? coming from one who has worked in heavy industry for 25+ years, quality control seems to go in cycles. there was a lot going on with the mint in the early 80's and if you sprinkle in some new employees and management/policy changes things can go to hell-in-a-handbasket quickly. human nature being what it is, i could understand a mint employee either not giving a damn and putting a coin like this in a set or not wanting to admit he'd screwed up. and of course there's the ultra obvious that someone just didn't see it.

al h.

cladking

I've been trying to remember what I know about this coin. It was just written up
in Coin World a few years back. But it's hardly the strangest coin to be found in a
proof set. There was actually a die cap Kennedy and numerous other "impossible"
coins reported in proof and mint sets. Some of these may have been a failed at-
tempt to get the coins out of the mint, but others seem more likely to be the result
of bored workers with a sense of humor.

lathmach

I'm with Kranky....How is it only one side shows the second image?

Ray

Placid

Closed at: US $2,000.00
I guess the start prices on these auctions are not firm.

zenny

unlike the bidding on heritage's stuff last week, the superior bidding seemed to be absolutely all over the board. i tried to get a bid in on one error merc, my computer said "bid has been sent" but they closed the auction.

i have no idea where either auction house was getting their "estimates" or "starting prices" but these too were often way, way off on many of the items offered in all sessions of both auctions. (i particularly liked the $100-99999 estimates, myself)

that there 1/2 is one goofy coin. wish i could have seen it in person, my finger was on the button but with the price so low, ironically, i had very little confidence in the coin.

i reckon someday i might be a cryin that i didn't pull the trigger at 2250.