I GUARANTEE You Have NEVER Seen An Error Like This

The 1913's have been sold (mostly in public auctions)
since 1966, and none of the winning bidders have been
the slightest concerned about their legality.

....and those coins were struck with altered US Mint Dies !

They, like the 1804 dollars, are legal to own.

 

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A.k.a. "unauthorized strike."

 

So they weren't actual 1913 dies....interesting.

 

No they were struck with genuine US Mint dies. Dies made in in anticipation of a nickel coinage that might be required before they finally approved the Buffalo nickel design.

 

Based on my examination of the coins, I always
thought that they used a Liberty Nickel die, but
changed the last digit to a '3'. The '3' is not
comparable to any other '3' I've seen on US coinage;
it's rough, and not as 'clean' as the '191'.

They did not appear to be struck from a fully authorized
1913 Liberty Nickel die.

 

I see nothing unusual about the 3 on the 1913 Liberty nickel or the entire 1913 date.

The development of the 1913 Indian Head nickel had dragged on from 1911 into February of 1913, and with the method of making new master dies and hubs taking a few days to complete it would have been prudent for Berber to prepare at lease a Master Die with the 1913 date.

 

And here is the CoinWeek article -
https://coinweek.com/coins/error-co...ws-unique-1972-s-proof-ike-dollar-mated-pair/

 

Lots of attention to how rare and $$$valuable$$$ this "error" is, one section about the Mint procedures that guarantee this couldn't have happened without insider malfeasance, but not a peep about controversy. Why, it's almost as though someone didn't want to jeopardize potential bids.

 

I think pale green would have been a more suitable color.

 

@-jeffB Many of these San Francisco Proof “assisted errors” from the 70’s first showed up in a sale by the by State of California (I can’t recall if it was a drug forfeiture or unclaimed deposit box). Prior to the sale, the US Secret Service examined the coins and ok’d their sale, so they are legit to buy, sell and collect. You also need to consider that getting these out of the mint is a significant challenge, so it’s going to be extremely difficult for more like this to hit the market, and if they do, the scrutiny will be extremely high. IMO, you may never see anything like these again (unless they mint decides to add custom made errors to their sales catalog )

Personally, I don’t have much enthusiasm for these types of errors, and others have expressed the same sentiment. However, since they are legal to own, if others want to spend big money for them, that’s their choice. The story of their existence is documented, and I’m sure that the dealers and potential buyers are well aware of the circumstances. Therefore, I have no issue with dealers like Mike Byers or Fred Weinberg selling errors like this, nor with those who buy them. FWIW: It looks like the market for this stuff has been strong for a while.

 

I especially like the gentle term "malfeasance".

 

It was an unclaimed SDB in San Francisco,
and the coins were sent to the Treasury
Dept. in Washington, who sent them all
back saying basically 'we don't care, do want
you want with them'

I bought that entire deal intact, and it included
the 3rd known Two-Tailed Quarter.

 

Ssshhhh!

 

To make myself perfectly clear (I hope), I don't think anyone currently in possession of these coins has done anything legally or ethically questionable, and I don't find it objectionable that they're up for sale.

I do find it surprising that they're more highly valued than actual accidental errors, given that these must have been made intentionally. To me, since they've been pronounced legal to own, they're... novelties, I guess. I see them in much the same light as Daniel Carr's overstrikes (which I have collected myself); collectible, but not in the same class as "real errors".

This is probably a good time for a disclaimer, again: I'm not an error collector or expert. I'm interested in errors because of what they teach us about production methods and materials, and because some of them look cool. But I don't think of my opinions on the error market as well-informed, and don't mean for them to sway others. Sometimes they just escape before I can catch them.

 

and all of these miss-struck coins

I hate when that happens to me, too.

 

I have to admit, I'm confused. Though I feel sure that if there was an economic opportunity by creating a "freak" coin, that some unscrupulous mint worker might have given it a shot, but since it is probably a federal offense, the risk would have been profound, and you have to find a weird collector.

 

Sorry...I have no affinity to anything artificial...Spark

 

Only organic, free-range coins for you, then?

 

Yeah...no artificial strike, toning or cleaning. I do proscribe to conserving coins and learning how to accomplish without harming a coin in any way. Sometimes debris ( read that: organic material) needs to be removed (very carefully and properly) to discern die markers. I never try to remove toning.

I strive to keep all my collectibles in as pristine as possible state...Spark

 

I'm waiting for the reverse proof version of this thing.