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What is the incidence of finding major error coins in mint sewn bags?
dlmtorts
Posts: 725 ✭✭✭
We see lots of really cool error coins. Many times I wonder where those are first found. At various times, I have opened 3 mint sewn $50 bags of Lincoln cents - 1972, 1977 and 1980. Each time I was hoping to find a major error. Nothing. So that makes me wonder - how many bags would you have to go through to expect to find a major error coin? (I know the 1972 bag likely contains minor double die coins, but I am talking about major errors such as off center, double struck, clips, die caps or struck through die cap, ect.)
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he had 10 bags of fresh from the Reserve cents. The business that ordered them
wanted them rolled. Out of the 10 bags the wrapping machine found 2 off-center
cents. There may have been clips or cuds but these 2 were caught. They did not
have dates. I paid him $1.00 for the pair.
When is the separation between "back in the day" and "nowadays"? I don't know.
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without a shred of evidence, that many error coins get out of the mint by nefarious means.
Cheers, RickO
I dunno. I guess that's why they are rare
There you are, TRUE statement.
I would think the odds of finding a major error in a mint bag about the same as unsearched lots of mint & proof sets.
asked quite often at coin shows, emails, phone calls:
You can go thru 1,000 Mint Sewn Bags of coins and not
find a single mechanical error - but in the 1,001st Bag,
you might find one or 200 off center cents.
Take the Multi-Billions of coins the Mint strikes for circulation,
figure out how many bags (or now, mostly Ballistic Bags) those
coins could fill, and you'll see that (pre-Ballistic Bag) there would
be many many thousands of 5,000 coin Cent bags, for example
that would be issued every year.
If mechanical errors could be found in one in ten bags, they certainly
wouldn't be worth as much now, would they?
The incidence of finding an error in a bag is random - one press malfunctions,
and the error output from that particular press might be caught and destroyed,
or hundreds of errors could be minted, and go thru the procedures without
being caught - but the odds are those errors would go into only some of the
bags, mixed in with tens of thousands of normal coins, before they get to a
counting or wrapping facility.
I've gone thru hundreds of mint SEWN bags in my 43+ years, and have only
found a few clips, struck thru's, and minor items - I've never found a common
off center cent.
for PCGS. A 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022
Bump for interest.
http://www.pcgs.com/SetRegistry/publishedset.aspx?s=142753
https://www.autismforums.com/media/albums/acrylic-colors-by-rocco.291/
Hey, I always like posting in thread that are older than the stuff in my fridge. Well, maybe most of the stuff in my fridge...
Considering the advancement in high speed optical sorting/rejection equipment use in everything from rice and other foods to small mechanical components, I can't see why they wouldn't do it with coins.
Non-circular, off color, even off-weight coins could be culled. Things like die breaks, strike throughs, and doubled dies could make it through (and even many of those could be caught), but I would think it would be pretty easy to catch problem coins in today's manufacturing environment.
>
"Back in the day" is before you could do it and "nowadays" is when you can't afford to.
That's probably the best analogy I have ever seen.
Pete
Analogies-R-Us
Nowadays there are still things that I couldn't afford back in the day.
I have kinda seen errors from mint bags that were found in a "when it rains, it pours" fashion. Back in 1982-83, I saw 22 off-center quarters that all came from the same original 1982 bag. Most had dates. I had a chance to get them and didn't, stupid me.
Slim to none.
I have found two major mint errors searching rolls and bags.
I no longer search rolls and bags, I search the internet instead.
At one time I had 40 or so major off-centers, cents and dimes all with full dates. Every single one of them was purchased from eBay or the back pages of Coin World or Numismatic News.
Best thing I ever got out of a roll or bag was a blank copper planchet (several times).
I have opened 4 Lincoln cent bags and in one dated 1974-P I found 4 coins with very small clips. I think I was very lucky
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I opened bag's of cents and found some clips, opened some nickel bags and found a cool coin. I think it was a Nickel struck on Philippine plan Chet. I know I still have it and I know where it is in my error box I'll pull it in a bit..
Hoard the keys.
After searching many new rolls I have found exactly one error worth mentioning: a 2016 nickel overstruck on a 2015 nickel. I have never found a clip, cud, or blank planchet, any one of which is infinitely more common than the coin I did find.
I have searched rolls, but never bags.... I have only one blank cent planchet...and I found that in change.... Cheers, RickO