1955 Doubled die cent - Truth or fiction (right forum this time!)

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 machines (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

hotpockets01

I only know for Pennsylvania that it is true the pennies were in the side of the pack. I remember as a kid,waiting on my dad to open his pack of cigerettes so we could get the pennies and go to the store where you could still buy penny candy. I know it didn't last long because we had to get our pennies elsewhere it seems. I was 9 years old at the time.

ldhair

The Lange book states that quite a few were found in cigarette packs.

dbldie55

Similar to the story that the 3 legged Buffalo's were released in my home town, I was not born yet to know "for sure". I have heard this story as well.

coinguy1

I found the interesting bit of reading below on a website :

" 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!"

hotpockets01

And to think how many bazooka bubble gum packs I wasted those 55 double D's on man wish I knew then what I knew now.

Eastside

I would'nt worry about it that vending machine is'nt there anymore
I read that the guy wanted to keep the cost of his ciggerettes competative with the little markets and a liquere store's that were close to most of his vending machines so he cellphaned 2 cents to each pack since his machine's would'nt except pennies.

Eastside

SilverDollarMan

<< <i>I found the interesting bit of reading below on a website :

" 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!" >>



Good story, thx 4 sharing

oreville

This is no story. My mother and father were both smokers in the 1950's and both told me of the two cents on the side of the cigarette packs.

Furthermore, I remember seeing one of these packs at a coin show in 1969 in New York. Of course, the cents were replaced with non 1955 DDO cents.

I wanted to buy the cigarette pack with the two cents but there was a problem. I was only 16 years old!!! They were selling the pack for enormous bucks. I believe it was $10 at the time. Cigarette packs were selling for 35 and 40 cents in 1969.

That seller was the same seller where I bought many of my pre 1940 BU cent rolls. Lincoln cents were very popular in the late 1960's.

Barry

I've heard/read that, too. IIRC, most of them came from the Boston area.

You might want to ask QDB. I believe he was one of the early accumulators/sellers of the 55 DD's.

1040taxman

If you go to ANRCOIN.COM look at the Richard Jewell Collection lot #1333.Q.David Bowers goes into detail about this coin and it's history.This coin (NGC MS66 RD) sold at the Bowers and Merena Rarities sale of January,2001.It sold for $46,000 back then.

astrorat

Thanks, everyone!

Lane

Spudmasher

David Bowers book Adventure in Rare Coins also states that these coins were found as Coinguy says in packages of cigarettes from vending machines.

MFH

Although I started collecting in 1960 in the Boston area, I remember seeing cents packaged in cigarettes back in 1955 ( I was 8 at the time, and didn't smoke ) and thought it curious that the vending machines would dispense coins with their cigarettes. I remember my parents showing me the package back then, but I wasn't knowledgeable about those "shift cents", otherwise I would have kept a few as oddities.

Zoins

@coinguy1 said:
I found the interesting bit of reading below on a website :

" 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!"

Wow, just ran across this thread searching for the 1955 DDO Lucky Strike origin story and it's a great one! Nice info on the Boston location and the "shift cents" too. I'm thankful to PCGS for keeping all these old informative posts alive. Amazing what you can learn from the forums!

CaptHenway

Cigarette pricing was competitive back then. I worked at a party store in Detroit in 1970-71. Most cigarette packs were 41 cents, and we went through a lot of rolls of cents giving out change. When the price went up to 42 cents people complained.

TwoSides2aCoin

The story is almost exactly as I heard it, as a child (1959-1960) from my dad, who died in '99 due to complications from smoking. In fact, it was his death which actually brought me back to life in the coin world.

astrorat

Thanks for the update to this 12-year-old thread!

asheland

Good thread indeed!

RogerB

Some additional information....

This was during the "fair trade" era when manufacturers set the retail price of most goods. Vending machines of the time were not very reliable when issuing cents as change. Also, as mentioned above, machine owners preferred to have customers use coins in increments of 5-cents and preferably single-coin purchases. Hence, 'vending' products with change enclosed in the packaging was good for business and kept customers happy. Some retail businesses issued change directly at the cash register as was common when candy bars were raised from 5-cents to 7-cents each in vending machines.

thebeav

I had always heard that the major release of these was in the Binghamton, NY area.

ricko

I can state that Lucky Strikes definitely had two cents in the package... I was often sent down to the 'corner store' to get a pack of cigarettes for my Dad... and Lucky's were his brand at that time. I recall him showing me one of the cents and telling me that 'someday' they would be worth a lot of money. Then he just put them in his pocket. I did end up saving a couple that I got on my paper route...and they disappeared when my Mom cleaned out my room after I joined the Navy.... Cheers, RickO

DCW

I had a 55 ddo that displayed a distinct toning band that I expect came from being taped to a pack of cigarettes. Unfortunately, my images are gone with the Photobucket collapse.