Coin Week: The Only U.S. Gold Coin Struck on an Elliptical Planchet - 2023 $5 Gold Eagle Mint Error
Goldbully
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This is the first I've heard about this.
Hopefully it hasn't already been posted, I searched as best I could.
The Only U.S. Gold Coin Struck on an Elliptical Planchet
By
Mike Byers -
May 25, 2026
The “Football-Shaped” Gold Eagle: A Unique U.S. Mint Error
A unique 2023 $5 Gold Eagle mint error shows how one tiny failure in the blanking process created one of the most dramatic modern U.S. gold errors known.
A modern U.S. gold coin should not look like this.
The U.S. Mint strikes the $5 American Gold Eagle on a round, carefully prepared planchet. The normal one-tenth-ounce Gold Eagle carries a $5 face value, measures 16.50 mm, contains 0.1000 troy ounce of gold, and weighs 3.393 grams.
Yet this 2023 $5 Gold Eagle weighs only 3 grams. More importantly, it did not leave the press round. It left as a football-shaped gold coin with missing design, missing edge detail, and a mint-made error story that few U.S. gold coins can match.
Mint Error 2023 $5 Tenth-Ounce Gold American Eagle Elliptical Panchet (3g) NGC MS-69
Comments
call the mint and exchange it for a good one
What's more likely, a true error or modern shenanigans?
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i can't visualize the blanking process that created this and presumably unknown crescent shaped piece
Here’s the auction:
https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/2134993/Mint-Error-2023-5-Tenth-Ounce-Gold-American-Eagle-Elliptical-Panchet-3g-NGC-MS-69-Miles-Standish-Signed-Label-Black-Retro-Holder
I collect oddities like this, and I was the underbidder on it. It was really hard to value it as I’ve never seen something to compare it to. In retrospect I’m glad I did not win it, and really think it’s worth closer to $2000-$2500. There are so few people who collect gold eagle errors that make it a niche market with not a lot of big money going in that direction. I was worried I was going to get buried in this coin when I put the bid in, and I’d have to find a buyer who collects a type set of elliptical planchets.
deep linked from GC
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considering what Coin Week wrote, it'd be extrmely difficult to make such a type set.
another oddity collector might have been the way
Here it is currently for sale:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/277982765331
You’re right that another oddity collector is probably the end buyer on this coin. Many gold eagle errors are unique for their type/series, albeit scarce, but not selling for moon money.
I was going to say that I thought $10k would be the right price, and I wish I had seen it on GC.
Don't feel too badly. If Mike Byers saw it and was the winner at GC and already has it listed on ebay at $12,500 then there is every reason to think you might not have gotten it very "cheaply".
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
@TomB Very true!
There are very few mint errors on American Eagle gold denominations. Additionally it is the only known U.S. gold coin struck on an elliptical planchet. I thought that it was a bargain.
Whoever was the underbidder (#13), a one time bid of $3,535. (without BP) was placed with 6 seconds remaining, but was outbid by my previous higher bid, then the clock ran out.
My bid was $4,888. (Without BP)
Cool pick up.
As an aside, the proportions of the reverse design look so off to me. Unartistic to my eye. Others opinion will vary.
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
Congratulations on your win!
This coin was probably struck on a Friday at 4:59 PM
Thank you!
Just sold it for $7k. It went to a customer with the #1 AE mint error collection.
Ended ebay