Options
This Error has been bugging me for over 20 years
braddick
Posts: 25,194 ✭✭✭✭✭
Error collectors or really anyone with knowledge- how would this error have happened, and how did it escape the U.S. Mint?
7
Comments
The coin was struck multiple times.
As for how it got out of the mint, well I was 2 in 1964 so I have no idea.
Thank you for your answer. For some reason, I always thought you were much younger.
I don't know, but I like it. I often wondered how any "real" mint error (much more dramatic then yours) actually leave the mint. In a mint employees pocket? shoe?
Someone said this one was pulled from a mint set!
What ANACS said. I can see that one slipping thru the mint.
100% Positive BST transactions
How did this happen,
I suspect by mint employees on purpose as there are quite a number of multi-struck 1964 cents with a very similar appearance. I have handled many of these.
is that a saddle strike or do the extra strikes have to be even on each side form each other?
Mint employees have security clearances. I can't see them jeopardizing their careers for stealing.
Like any gov't employee, they get promotions, cash awards, letters of appreciation and different types of other recognition for outstanding achievements. I often wondered if the mint management hands out these errors to the mint rank and file for their performance or maybe gifts during a retirement ceremony.
Although, it would be an oxymoron. Here's an "ERROR" to recognize your outstanding achievement and performance!!
Any mint employees within the sound of my voice have the answer?............
What am I saying, mint management is probably monitoring this forum!!
They do appear to have been struck simultaneously and there is a “hump”, so it does appear to be a true saddle strike, on top of an already fully struck cent.
I seriously doubt that.
The mint police won't do anything about what happened 59 years ago, lol.
The mint did get very concerned in 2001 and put in many measures to almost eliminate all major error coins from getting out from 2002 moving forward. That is why I love 2002 and beyond major error coinage.
1964, as I understand it, was a banner year for error coinage. A whole lot of shenanigans
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
In 1964 the mint was cranking out coins at large capacity. Haste makes waste.
The real error I am wondering about is the label - "multiply struck"?
That plus the MS61 RB grade. NOT MS60 nor MS62! "MS61"
Some how those cents are all super well positioned to showcase the date!
Which leads me to believe that they are suspect ....
Do you believe that?
Or is it that we only showcase the ones with well-positioned dates?
I have to say that these errors look pretty common if you collect error coins from India.
There are just too many nice "perfect" 1964 major errors coins to be a coincidence.
If an irregular product is made on purpose, is it an "error"?
Good point. The problem is we don't know for certain if this coin was made this way on purpose or was made this way by accident.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Yes, from the Mint Director and US Mint perspectives. These were likely not made on purpose from the Mint Director and US Mint perspectives.
Perhaps not from the Press Operator perspective.
Hypothetically, if these types of coins are purely "error" pieces, do they leave the Mint in bulk bags of coins? For example, how would a coin struck on a nail (the pic above) even physically leave the Mint. And if that's the case, who discovers these pieces? I'm guessing an "error" like those pictured don't get found in circulation.
Can any experts weigh in on this? Just curious.
Error coinage was and can be found anywhere on the scale of roll and bag searching and coin rolling company finds to the other extreme of forklift oil pans and in body inserts
At the Franklin Mint, the metal detectors stopped at ankle level; as metal tipped shoes were required for working on the production floor. When you left the floor, there was a pegboard holding 100 nails. Ten had red tips. If you pulled a red tipped nail you had to take off your work shoes and socks.
We still had shortages every month when reconciling the metals inventories. Strange that we never had shortages on “birds of the world” thimbles. Rumor had it that over time the workers knew where the red tipped nails were on the pegboard. Errors getting out the door were not a problem but there are always clever people on the floor.
So, it is possible my error cent was stuck up someone's butt?
I don't know If I'm comfortable with knowing that.
Does it have a chocolate brown toning?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
That’s why that cent don’t shine.
Hey EoC, let's not rush it OK?
you don't necessarily have to go through the secret basement entrance.
kids swallow coins all the time and the turn out ok, right?
Ya, 'butt' how many kids worked at the Philly mint back in 1964?!
Jeeezzz, these pictures are just stunning works-of-art! Beautiful!!
Which raises the question: Are there carpenters working on the mint production floor?
Hey, I'm just playing Devil's advocate here. Don't shoot the messenger.
Were planchets provided by contractors in large wooden crates that were nailed together?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
We have this discussion about twice a year, sometimes more.... There is no final answer to individual error finds... However, it is likely that some are 'produced' and others are actual 'errors'... and some get out in bags, and others get out in - something. There is no final answer... but all the speculated theories are indeed answers. Cheers, RickO
There's gotta be a retired production floor mint employee on this forum somewhere. Maybe he'll speak up and spill his guts!!
I had a 59 proof set once with a perfect fingerprint etched into the surface, right over the center of the Obv of the quarter. No doubt in my mind, that fingerprint could be traced back to a mint employee.
PCGS grades artificially toned ASEs - doesn’t mean it’s real toning.
PCGS grades artificially toned ASEs - doesn’t mean it’s real toning.
The older coin presses had a brass planchet feed tube with a slot down the side facing the press operator. A guy I used to work with at Coin World and ANACS was on a floor tour of a U.S. Mint one day and he saw a nail sitting up on a coin press and he asked the press operator what the nail was for. The press operator showed how he used the nail in that slot to clear jams in the feed tube. Thus, there was a legitimate reason to have a nail near a coin press.
THat said, I believe that the cents on nails were done deliberately. Can't prove it, just what I believe.
TD
Great info. Stamping it with a dime die pair would make it easier to hold and grip, like the flat part of knitting needles. Perhaps it was done purposely but to make it easier to hold when clearing the feed tube?
Logical potential explanations for an amazing 'error'....Cheers, RickO