I won't say where I heard this cause I don't want to jeprodize anyone's job but I wouldn't put it past someone to do this. Okay here goes, I heard that the mints will make one of a kind errors then sell them at a premium to collectors thru auctions, could this really happen without someone like an auditor, or inspector knowing about it and would that be fraud of some kind?
How can one "make" an error? An error is something that is done by mistake not intentionally. I would not want to spend my money on an "error" that was made on purpose even if it was done by the mint. Here is a question for ya. If the mint sets out to intentionally make an error on a coin and succeeds in doing so how could said coin be classified as an error? Wouldn't it be a copy of an error? Much like a print is to a painting?
So how would you know that the "error" on which you did spend your money wasn't made intentionally? Note: I am not saying that mint workers do this sort of thing; merely saying that there would be no way to tell that an error was created by accident rather than by purpose.
If the mint were to do this intentionally and not disclose that the "one of a kinds" were fabricated and not real errors then I think that would be fraud. This is why I think this can't be true. The only way to make any money doing this is to not disclose that they were intentionally minted that way.
Having seen the process of how the machines are loaded and coins then moved into bins after coming out of the press, it would make it difficult IMO to introduce then capture said error without drawing attention under more cameras then a Las Vegas Casino. Denver Mint in Background.
The "mints" don't intentionally make errors, but mint employees have intentionally made errors, how else to explain a sandpaper coin or a nail coin?
I agree. But unless I am mistaken, the OP is trying to say the mints themselves are doing this. If he had said mint employees were doing this and then selling them themselves this would still be fraud but at least it would be more believable.
I don't believe this could happen in todays times. Probably has happened over the history of the US mints.
One way they probably do intentionally make rare coins is through limited mintages. They have to know that collectors love low mintages. Judging by many threads I've seen on this forum over the years, this technique works incredibly well.
Well if someone is a worker at the mint and they do it at the mint wouldn't you say the mint did it or do you think ( the mint) is a person with a brain and can do things like a human? Not trying to be sarcastic or anything just clarifying
The mint is a business run by people just like any other business. Of course I do not think they have their own brains and run them selves. By saying you heard the "mint" was making these errors and then selling them at auction, you made it sound like they, The mint, were the ones behind this scheme. While what you should've said was you heard that some mint employees were making and selling one of a kind errors.
Okay I'm sorry I miss worded my question I guess I should have stayed in school instead of going to work but at the time sister and I had no one else so I found work instead of school, again sorry about that to all
Here below is a nice video I found on youtube that gives you a pretty good idea of the equipment and processes involved with coin manufacturing. Though it would be hard for someone to intentionally create error coins, it may not be difficult to collect coins that have been detected to have errors. Note starting @ 3:45 minutes into the video, they mention that all error are destroyed. That's where errors could possibly be put aside and sold outside the mint.
I don't know that they can intentionally create errors but I have little doubt that some series have been created with that purpose in mind.