Always thought these were so neat. It would be marvelous if the 99 was a WAM. I bought a small collection a while back for a great price and have not really taken the time to go through all of the coins. I was looking through a couple of three cent pieces that came with it and noticed a minor die clash. It is visible on both the obverse and reverse. I will try to post a pic tomorrow.
I particularly like the ones that you can still see the date on them. To me, they are useless otherwise save for a nice convo piece.
They are much more than conversation pieces. They are educational pieces (if you allow them to be, that is). Think about how they were made, what went wrong, what should have happened, etc. and you will have a better understanding of the minting process. The more you understand how coins are made the better you will understand other facets of coin collecting.
Maybe I should choose my words a bit more carefully.... They are not totally useless as they still carry a premium without a date and can be educational. When I said useless I was referring to my collection. I do not care to collect the ones without dates.
Finding an O/C strike that dramatic? Your chances are very slim. Finding minor misaligned dies and maybe 2-3% O/C strikes is possible. You just need to keep your eyes peeled!
Any error larger than intended size most likley will not fit in a roll, therefore, just about impossible to get one in change or even while roll searching
The mint sends them off in bags and then they get rolled from my understanding so I bet whoever rolls them finds them when the machine gets jammed
I highly doubt they hire minors, let alone someone who can't legally apply for a job yet... :rollling:
That would be one heck of a good job. just imagine opening the sealed mint bags of coins and pouring them into the counting and rolling machine,then soon as the machine jams unclog it by pulling out error coins worth thousands. there is a lady on Ebay that sells some awesome error coins by the hundreds,she probably works at brinks or knows one of the workers. actually the best errors are probably pulled out when the bins of coins at the mint are counted and put into the bags.
Sounds like a dream job but it no longer exists. Several years ago the Mint made a change where the contractors that roll coins must return error coins to the Mint for destruction. Do the contractors return EVERY error coin to the Mint? I doubt it. But, from what I understand, the penalty for keeping error coins they find is pretty severe (lose your job and maybe be charged with a crime).
