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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;JCro57, post: 3452881, member: 92083&quot;]In the mid-1960s, NY City native Victor Piacentile (a.k.a. Victor Pease) approached William Sheiner, the owner of Bronx Coins, to help him market a double struck, rotated in collar 1964 Lincoln cent. Interestingly, it was only double struck on the obverse side - very much unlike this error type and which immediately drew suspicion from collectors. Even more fantastic is that several more were claimed to have been discovered in sealed Mint bags. And they were all struck the same proportion of rotation (about 40 degrees counter clockwise)!</p><p><br /></p><p>As if this isn&#039;t ridiculous enough, the pair even staged a public demonstration at a NY hotel where they opened &quot;sealed&quot; Mint bags and &quot;found&quot; a few more identical errors!</p><p><br /></p><p>Where it really got problematic for them was that they advertised in The New York Times and other publications that were mailed to various dealers and collectors. Over 100 were sold, with several sent through the mail. Of course, committing a crime (altering coins with a fake obverse die to scam buyers) and then using the mail is a federal olfense, and each time it is done is another charge; it also involves conspiracy to commit a crime.</p><p><br /></p><p>After being tipped off to the U.S. Secret Service, the two wound up charged with various federal crimes and each got sentemced to 3 months in prison and 2 years probabtion.</p><p><br /></p><p>Featured here is one of those infamous cents they were charged with altering, which I acquired just yesterday. Though many detest altered and counterfeit coins, it can&#039;t be ignored that it did become a part of numismatic history. Although not as widely known as the Henning Nickel (which was counterfeit and wasn&#039;t made to scam collectors), the Piacentile/Sheiner cent is similar in that there was a key diagnostic blunder.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]917811[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]917812[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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