I have a couple Lincolns that are rotated about the same degree. Are these quite common? Thanks! - Jeff
For a coin to be worth over face value because of a rotated error the rotation <sp?> must be over 15%. Sorry----I wish I could tell you these were worth more but this is what the market goes by IIRC. Speedy
i have the nice dansco album and all the cents are in there nicely from the front and the back are all rotated just a bit; so that it looks like you did a crap job of putting htem in, till you flip the page back. I purchased a Micihgan quarter and die set from the mint two years ago. I was/am surprised that they do not have a "key" that keeps the dies from rotating in the press.
At first I was thinking "Yah, duh, why hasn't the mint thought about that", but then I realized the answer is problably wrapped up in die life. A perfectly round shape can withstand much higher pressures than other shapes. Anything that would take the die or die holder out of being perfectly round, such as a key or notch, would instantly become a weak point subjecting the die and press to earlier fatigue failures. So I'm guessing its cheaper for the Mint to risk die rotation that it is to replace dies and presses.
Dies have always been aligned by eyesight alone. A competent mint worker should be able to accurately align the dies. The method which a die is created prohibits adding such a notch or aligning key. As lawdogct already pointed out, adding a groove to the die will give it a point of falure. It wouldn't take much to crack a die right in half. Machining the die after it was already created is a bad idea, it could lose it's temper if it was overheated. Extreme die misalignment is somewhat rare. The average person never looks closely at their coins anyway. Most alignment problems are only found when a coin is put into a holder.
Check this rotated die out. I was admiring my Indian Heads tonight when something struck me from the pages. All my Indian Heads on the reverse, have the shields upside down - EXCEPT THIS ONE! Which is 180 degrees Rotated! hehehe It's an 1864 Bronze Indian Head I'd say in good condition, maybe fine tops. The person who set this die up must have made a whole batch of these babies backwards! If it wasn't for the holders, I'd have never noticed. Any info would be gladly welcomed. Esky
Rotation I've been collecting rotated coins for about 2 years mostly Mercury dimes but I have come across a few rotated wheat cents. It seems to me that rotation in Merc. dimes is fairly common but the greater the degree of rotation the harder they are to find. Of the 100 or so that I have found only 4 or 5 have rotation of greater than 50 percent.
Esky: Nice find, and probably worth a nice premium. Grade? AG. There is wear into the rims on both the obverse and the reverse. Still a very nice find.
Yeah- could be AG ... Kind of interesting with the rotated die though. Hate to have to put it on E*Bay and sell to find out what it's worth? Esky
This link will give you an idea of what to expect to get on eBay for a Lincoln cent with a rotated reverse. Results will vary widely though. I sold one with slightly more wear about a month earlier to the same person for almost twice as much as this one. I would have posted that link also but the photo is no longer visible on the ebay site. This link has the photo visible and quite nicely shows the rotation. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...earch.dll?from=R40&satitle=280036268011&fvi=1
Wow - it really does vary wildly. I bet also the rotated die coins go up and up in value as coin collecting gets more and more meticulous. Look at what some lamination errors go for and to think I ungratefully used to cast those babies aside as junk! lol. Thanks for the info Esky
