Bizarre 1946 Nickel with "1946" date overstamped -- with backwards 4!

Bizarre 1946 Nickel with "1946" date overstamped -- with backwards 4! (Now w/ pic)

I just found in my change one of the strangest nickels i've ever seen. I'm not sure if it is a minting error, some kind of experimental issue, or just a unique item created by some random prankster long long ago.

Here's the description:

It's a normal 1946 (Philadelphia) standard Jefferson nickel in fair/good condition (i.e. heavily worn down with normal wear and tear) that has one freakish attribute: over the 1946 date, someone has re-stamped the numbers "1946" incuse-style, very precisely done, except for a very strange glitch: the "4" is backwards!

You can still see remnants of the original 1946 date beneath the overstamping, which makes even less sense, since why re-stamp the same date over the old date?

In every other respect, the nickel looks completely normal -- there is no flaw in the leg of the "R" in "Pluribus," so it is not a Henning counterfeit.

Is this a known error? Anyone ever seen anything like it before? Anyone know what its origins might be? I suspect it was just some guy experimenting with a die-stamp at home back in the '40s, but still can't figure out why the "4" is backwards.

If it helps, I can try to take a picture of it and post that. Thanks.

 

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we need a pic thanks

 

Just my opinion , post mint damage , when a date is punched in a die it is incused so it will come out raised on a coin , even a repunchened date is incused in the die thus it would have to be raised on a coin . Since yours is incused on the coin , most likely occurred after it left the mint .
rzage

 

OK, here are the pics (hope this works, never done it before):


Here's the front, with the weird overstamp visible.


Here's a close-up of the overstamp showing the original "1946" date still partly visible.


And here's the reverse, showing the effects of the stamping on the right edge.

Who did this, and why? Was it something "official," or just some nut goofing around?

 

I vote for some nut goofing around. When work is slow and you have a hammer and some number stamps lying around one thing could lead to another and before you know it....

 

Second the motion.

 

Yep, some nut job. You can see the evidence on the reverse that it was hammered.

 

Yeah, this is post mint damage. It's an interesting find but not worth anything.

 

Post mint damage for sure. Also the comment was made that there is no hole in the R of PLURIBUS so it is not a Henning. Keep in mind that Henning made more than one reverse die (he claimed to have made 6) and the hole in the R is not on all of them. So you can't use this as a sole diagnostic for a Henning nickel.

 

Hi,

Definitely post-mint damage. The numbers were added with punches.

Thanks,
Bill

 

The question is, where do you get a backwards 4 punch? Of course maybe it isn't backwards, maybe it is rotated clockwise 90 degrees.

 

they make reverse #s, we use them all the time

 

I do believe a little kid did this he was bored or a Nutty .
JC

 

Stop and think about it - when dates were handpunched into the dies, they had to be incuse reversed characters, so that coin date would be correctly oriented raised numbers.

 

I don't think we'll need a vote on this.....

 

After 1909, dates were modeled on the hubs, so they were raised on the hubs then transfered to the dies. There were no backward punches used.

 

OK your right a standard raised 4 punch would make an incused reversed 4 like that. So in that case the REST of the number punches are backwards.

 

interesting coin but some nut did it

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8VdK1fizfU3bnRYUHN4VHFnYXc/edit?usp=docslist_api

1946 Jefferson Nickel...strange looks like Indian head over Monticello Residence. ..any ideas?

 

It has been damaged somehow. For some reason coins are a common target for mutilation!