Moved to US Coin forum . . .

astrorat

Hi folks-

There is a long-standing fable that a number (more than a few and less than all) of 1955 doubled-die cents were released to the public through cigarette vending machings (I believe in Lucky Strike packs) where the "change" was actually in the cigarette pack and not dispensed by the "change" mechanism of the machine.

Is this fable true or just a myth? If you believe it is true, what evidence or documentation is available?

Lane

coinlover726

I believe Bowers said they came out of cigarette machines he knows because he was in an area where appeared in great numbers in upstate NY. I believe he paid 50c for many of them probably all red too.

coinguy1

Lane, I'm not sure why you posted this here, on the BST forum, as opposed to the US Coin Forum but....

I found the interesting bit of reading below on this website : Link

" 1955 Doubled Die Cents are the best known error coins of my youth. Most of them showed up as change attached to packages of cigarettes which cost twenty-three cents. The vending machine people decided to put two one cent coins into the cellophane wrapping around the cigarette pack so that a quarter would be all that was needed to operate the cigarette vending machines most frequently located in bars and stores.

One young man, of whom I knew, caught onto this fact and went from bar to bar in his city buying out all the cigarette machines to get the one cent doubled die coins. He then resold the cigarettes at twenty cents a pack! He found enough doubled die 1955 cents to buy a new car for cash. Today a brown M.S. 63 1955 doubled die cent fetches about fifteen or sixteen hundred dollars.

The story isn’t quite finished yet. When that young fellow got all that lovely cash for his 1955 doubled die cents and bought his sparkling new Chevrolet, he drove it home with pride. His father was a policeman who had come to this country as a child from Europe and was proud to be an honest and upright American. When he saw his teenage son’s new car bought for cash, he went nuts. He proceeded to beat the hell out of him, because he thought his son was selling drugs!

Things got sorted out and the coin market was explained. The father had moral reservations about the ethics of making huge profits on these 1955 doubled die cents, but at least his kid wasn’t selling drugs!"

astrorat

<< <i>Lane, I'm not sure why you posted this here, on the BST forum, as opposed to the US Coin Forum but.... >>



Well Mark, it is because I was not paying attention!

Thanks and I will move it over!

Lane