I have a Kennedy half in my mint proof set that has a wire or some other object that was press in to the reverse of the coin - from the left talon through one of the stars. is this a worth while error? Sorry - new to the serious coin collecting hobby. Any help would be appriciated
Yup - looks like a struck through error to me. My guess would be it was a string from a piece of cloth that one of the mint workers used to wipe down the dies. It's possible it was a small piece of wire though. Some of the more dramatic strike through errors can bring nice premiums - but the smaller ones seldom do. Still a neat collectible though
Thanks GD - My guess is a wire. Yes it is a proof (although I think you caught that and edited your response) I thought maybe because of the care and attention that proof coins get , this would be a little bit of a goody. I'll keep it as "proof" that even the best care can still miss an imperfection.
The quality of modern US Mint products, aimed at collectors, is nowhere as good as you may have been led to believe. I've actually seen fingerprints, "milk-spots", contact marks, scratches, and, of course, various errors on coins still in the Government packaging. I don't think there's much doubt that you have a "strike-through" error. If you had a low-power microscope, you might even be able to determine exactly what type of foreign material it was that got between the planchet and the die.
You should send the coin in for grading.Normally they don't lower the grade for error coins.They typically grade the coin as if the error was not there to get the net grade of the coin but do mention the error on the slab.Also,If you can find a coin with the wire still attached then the value increases.
