1998 1c Struck Over a 1997 1c. Very neat! The 1998 obverse is struck over the reverse of the 1997 understrike. The 1997 obverse is the understrike on the reverse of the 1998 strike. You can see the "1997" on the "T" of CENT at 4:30 o'clock.
That's my thoughts exactly Chris. How'd two different years, in this current environment, get stacked like that? Me smells something fishy here.
No need for Eddie, other than to support, or refute, Joe's ( @JCro57 ) explanation. He's an expert I respect.
In the early weeks of 1998 there was a late night maintenance dude cleaning the floor area near the coin press. He spotted a 1997 cent that somehow was dropped the previous year. He picked it up and threw it into a bin full of cent blank planchets that were soon going to be minted
It is possible that a struck cent could have been left in a bin, or stuck in the press somewhere, and then rode along with unstruck planchets for a 1998 strike. Being only 1 year off, my suspicions aren't as strong that it was Mint-assisted. However, I can't say it wasn't done on purpose either. Now this one - a 2000-P Jefferson nickel struck over a 1961 Lincoln cent - a 39 year difference - can only be explained by shenanigans.
cool error coins I never have seen. I have seen a couple flip overs on Ebay for Canadian cents and they go for big money too.
Often at the end of the year the mint will be striking both the current and the coming years coins at the same time (so as to have a stockpile available at the turn of the year). In such a case it is possible for a coin for one year to get into the press striking the coins of the other year. In years past there ws also the possibility mentioned of a previously struck coin getting stuck in a tote bin that was then filled with planchets and dislodging the coin allowing it to get fed into the press.
That's exactly why silver coins were struck in 1965 bearing a 1964 date. They had to use up the silver planchets they had on hand before striking clad coins. That's also why some 1964 silver quarters got struck with the clad die reverses.
Silver coins were struck in 1965 with a 1964 date because first a date freze was placed on all the coins so the 1964's continued to be struck in 65, second because when the coinage act of 1965 was passed it containd a provision that any 90% silver coins struck after the passage of the act would be dated 1964. 1964 dated silver coins continued to be struck into 1966.
