Is this considered an error rather than a variety? This worth anything. It's not in good shape. Do CONECA attribute these things like they do RPM's etc. Presumably multiple coins will have been made this way.
I'm not the expert, but I would call it an eror, not a variety. An error can happen only once (one coin), but a variety will be struck that way until the die is discarded. Value is minor, but eBay has a way of making minor into something a bit more.
I can see how you could distinguish errors from varieties using your criteria but rotated dies must present a problem. If the dies are installed incorrectly they may strike 50,000 coins or more the same way. If the dies slip (they are keyed) then presumably you could get a batch of coins with differing rotations.
The line between what defines an error from a variety is often a very fine one. You can ask 10 different knowledgeable people if a given coin is an error or a variety and always get different answers. But what difference does it really make ? The coin is what it is. As the man said - " a rose by any other name ..... is but a rose " Or something like that
This is true, and as mentioned above, the line can be pretty fine separating the two. There was a famous 1967 Canada Dollar, a Diving Goose they called it. It had a die rotation and it caught on with collectors, so it is variety of sorts. In my mind, though, in general rotated dies are errors, not varieties, since a die rotation is more undefined - I mean, it could be one coin or a hundred thousand coins, and there can be as many die rotations as there are die installations. Plus, and this is the key point for me, whereas a die variety is static (set in place and repeated exactly each time), you could argue that scientifically speaking, no two die installations will produce EXACTLY the same die alignment. They might differ by one billionth of an inch, but they are all “different” (this goes back to my high school science days when I was told that no two things are truly identical, since you can drill down to ever-deeper examinations until you find some sub-microscopic difference). A three legged Buffalo nickel or even an extra leaf on a Wisconsin quarter are obvious and stand out from other coins, but there could be thousands of different die rotations (some the same but not made from the same set of dies) of some degree, no matter how small.
Yes it is an error. But (for me anyway) it's value depends on which coin it is and the date as well as the degree of rotation. Die rotation on Buffalo nickels (and many other older coins) is quite common, but try finding a Sac $1 with die rotation, they are very expensive. I have a 2000 nickel with very nice rotation and have only seen one other on ebay. Could it be quite rare????
Is this a rotated D? I was going thru some nickles and this one caught my eye, I dont know a lot about such things. I dont have another 86 to compare with but I compared it to an 85 & 87 and this one looks tilted. What do you think? Thanks
The reason behind these "rotated, tilited, or misplaced" Mint marks is because they were punched into the working dies by hand, thus no working die was ever the same. There really is no value in these (as far as I'm concerned) unless they are punched wayyyy out of wack. Still a neat anomily that you can find on all pre 1997 denominations... IMO I would call these errors rather than varieties....
