Question for the guys who search hundreds of Proof and Mint Sets - have you ever found....

seanq

.... any error coins in these sets? In my own collection I have a small handful of clips on proof coins and on business strikes sealed in Mint sets. I'm just wondernig if anyone here has come across any while searching for DCAMS or MS67s in these sets.

Oh, also, if you have... how much do you want for them?


Sean Reynolds

MadMonk

Just planchet defects in my experience.

BillJones

Planchet defects, overpolishing of the dies with a resultant loss of detail and maybe a die break are about it. There are the varieties with missing mint marks, but I've never been lucky enough to run into one of those.

By the nature of Proof coins, very few pieces with major errors or defects are going to escape the mint. Many years ago (circa 1974), some Proof Ike dollars struck on dime and cent planchets did surface. Later it was determined that these items were made by dishonest mint employees who were out for a buck. All of those items were declared illegal to own, and the government confescated them.

Manorcourtman

I've found a half dozen or so stuck-thru coins in Mint sets. Not a big deal or high dollar items but interesting! Actually most were in 2003 and 2002 sets. Chris

seanq

I know they're rare, but they are out there, and most of the ones I've heard of date from the 1960-1971 time period where most of these guys are searching. For proofs I know of two clipped cents (one a 1970-S), three clipped nickels, and a clipped dime (1963, which I own). In Mint sets I have (or had) two clipped cents, three nickels (one double-clipped), one dime and one quarter. I also know of three clipped 1970-D halves, which were only issued in Mint Sets. Not long ago I saw a Mint set with the quarter struck on a nckel planchet. I've never seen a legitimate SMS error (though I've seen a few which obviously had some help getting outside the Mint).

I figured with the volume of sets these guys are poring over, someone must have come arcoss an error coin at some point. If I'm wrong, then these errors are probably even more rare than I imagined.


Sean Reynolds

Russ

Quite a few lint and grease strike-thrus, a couple slightly rotated dies, but nothing special. But, I should note that I generally pay pretty close to zero attention to anything that isn't a cameo or deep cameo.

Russ, NCNE

SanctionII

Great question.

After looking through proof and SMS sets for 6+ years looking for cameos I have not found any clipped coins. However, I bought 10 unopened 1965 SMS sets. Four of the ten sets contained dimes with clash marks. You can see Roosevelts bust on the reverse and you can see the torch and the leaves on the obverse. Very cool. I sold one set for $25.00, donated the other to a coin club auction and still have two of the sets. I have no idea what they are worth, but they are cool.

MadMarty

<< <i> I bought 10 unopened 1965 SMS sets >>



65 SMS sets were not sealed

SanctionII

Marty, I stand corrected. They were not sealed by the mint. However, someone had licked the envelopes and sealed them I had to cut the envelopes open to look at the coins. So in that regard they were sealed. My use of the term "unopened" was a "semantic malfunction".

cladking

I've found lots of varieties and rotated dies in mint sets but very few error coins. Most of the
errors are very minor like small clips and strike throughs.

haletj

I've seen plenty of not error coins but error sets...

1990 mint set with 2 tokens and no penny..
1974 mint set with a 1973 penny in it...
1973 mint set with 2 P pennies and no S...

techeff

Found a nice 65 Kennedy with struck thru wire. It slabbed SMS63.

DHeath

Quite a few actually, but this one is the most recent. Not a clip, just a decent struck-thru.

carl

I've been getting proofs since 1952 from the mint. Been getting uncirc sets for more years than I can remember. Never found one error in any sets yet. Kind of wish I could find one at least.

clackamas

I have more than a few clipped coins, cents mostly but some Jeffs and a rossie or two as well. Strike thoughs are all too common that I hate seeing them becasue they damage the coins grade.

BillJones

The most noticeable error that I ever found in a mint set was a big piece of string that was sealed inside the flexible plastic holder. It was indicative to me as to the type of generally lax approach that the mint took toward mint sets in the 1970s.

Rampage

I came across a clipped cent a while back while I was in Denver. I think it was a 1970, maybe 1971. It was about a 10% clip. When I pulled it from the envelope, the dealer saw it and took it back. Guess he did not want to sell it for $10.00.

Conder101

Back around 1989 I had a customer bring me back a 1969 proof set I had sold him asking if he could exchange it because it was defective. I told him sure and got out the 1969 sets so he coul pick he one he wanted. I asked what was wrong with the other set and he said the quarter had a problem. So I opened the set and sure enough the quarter was defective, it had about a 10% clipped planchet! I told him I would be MORE than happy to exchange the set but that the quarter in his set was worth well more than what the replacement set was worth. (Being honest has its drawbacks. Serves me right for not having looked through the sets myself before selling them.) In the end he kept his set and bought a "good" replacement set.