http://www.ebay.com/itm/1981-CENT-on-NICKEL-planchet-UNIQUE-and-supposedly-IMPOSSIBLE-/251377244021 Just explain how this could have happened. This is better than the 1970-S proof quarter struck on a Barber quarter (yes, it exists. This is what I mean, but prepare to have your mind blown: http://mikebyers.com/inventory/1949701-012obv.jpg)
That's an interesting error, but I do wonder what the seller paid for it? Probably a bit shy of their $199,500 asking price.
Hey wasn't that Dear John movie about this coin? Like a penny struck on a nickel planchet or something. I haven't seen the movie in a while.
Press operator at cent press that is not running hand inserts nickel planchet betwee the dies. Cycles the press, retrieves the "error" from the bin.
Without some help, this sort of thing is impossible. That puts this "error" squarely in the realm of "intentionally manufactured so-called rarity," and thus is pretty much worthless, in my opinion. There are many impossible errors that fall into this same category, throughout many eras of the mint.
But it's not a fake or counterfeit coin? It originated from the US mint, someone just had an inside hand in creating it. That doesn't make it any less authentic an item.
Yes it originated at the US mint but not as an item produced with any kind or authority. Coins are produced under legal authority, patterns are produced on orders from an authorized source, mint errors are produced unintentionally during production runs of authorized coinage. This thing was produced deliberately with by someone with no authority to do so. Of course the problem with this "definition" is that some things that are highly desired in the hobby fall under the same definition. The 1913 V Nickel, and lot of so called "patterns".
When I read debates like these I think of the 1913 liberty nickel. If deliberate and without authority is the benchmark then where do those 5 fall in the argument?
They fall into a grey area somewhere in-between. They were made at the mint, but they weren't supposed to be made. Some collectors accept them, some don't. I think they are curios, and certainly not worth anywhere near what they fetch.
