Ok... This is interesting, so bare with me.. I recently sent up 16 coins to well respected Coin Grader... They came back with two errors: 1) They declared a 1796 Wreath Large 1C as a Draped Bust... I explained the error with the illustration here: 2) They ignored the reverse side of my Mule coin and blessed it as a regular coin... I explained the error with this illustration... Now that's just a starter...When I got them to declare them as "mechanical" errors - they started a new order with the intention to change the date of the coin... In fact, they even went so far as to edit the original order to reflect this... that's when I threw a flag on the play.. I knew that the only mule instance they acknowledge is this one.. But I argued that this is not a 2008! As evidenced from my packaging... A little background... A Mule is a coin that has the Obverse from one coin and a Reverse from another - in this case, the 2007 Abigail Adams Obv has the 2008 Louisa Adams Reverse on it.. Since there are only two prevailing theories on how this Mule came about... 1) The 2007 Coin was stamped with a die that was already prepared for the following year and was mistakenly pulled to strike the reverse. 2) The Mint struck 2007 coins in 2008 to finish the order and the 2008 was mistakenly pulled to strike the reverse. Anyway... they are steadfast on the classification, so I provided testimony from the US Mint.. 15:41:50 [Kilonna] Hi, ! How may I help you today? 15:42:04 [Visitor] Yes perhaps... A trivia question... 15:42:07 [Visitor] Were there any Bronze Medal 2007 First Spouse Sets Struck in 2008? 15:44:35 [Kilonna] I will be happy to answer your product question! One moment please while I find the information you are requesting. Please allow me up to two minutes to research. 15:50:43 [Kilonna] I appreciate your patience while I was researching. Unfortunately we do not duplicate the previous year. I apologize for any inconvenience this puts you in. 15:51:36 [Visitor] So to clarify... No 2007 First Spouse Bronze Medal Sets were made in 2008..? 15:52:00 [Kilonna] That is correct. 15:53:24 [Visitor] Hence, the Abigail Adams / Louisa Adams Mule coin in the 2007 First Spouse Bronze Medal Sets - was struck in 2007? 15:55:28 [Kilonna] Yes, if that's the year the coin was purchased. But we do not retroactively mint items. 15:56:27 [Visitor] Yes the 2007 First Spouse Bronze Medal Sets was purchased 2007 which included the aforementioned error mule coin. 15:57:43 [Visitor] To your knowledge, were there any 2008 First Spouse Bronze Medal Sets with the the Abigail Adams / Louisa Adams Mule coin in it? 16:00:33 [Visitor] To your knowledge were there any error coins produced in the 2008 First Spouse Bronze medal sets? 16:01:17 [Kilonna] No 16:01:36 [Visitor] thank you... You've been a great help.. bye.. So, I get the problem.. they've already classified 13 coins as 2008 - but I say - get it right now before the numbers are unmanageable. As the US Mint pointed out No 2007 First Spouse Bronze Medal Sets were made in 2008, and to their knowledge there were no 2008 error coins in the 2008 First Spouse Bronze Medal Sets - So.. My question is - where the heck do they get 2008 from..? they can't be dating the coin by the intended die issue date to determine the date - the year of the coin is when it's struck (per the US Mint)... Your thoughts?
That's the most interesting coin I've seen come from the Presidential Spouses Program..... PCGS's variety service is ... well .. you see. I believe most prefer to use ANACS because they have an established proven system for varieties. I see misattributed varieties from PCGS while digging thru Coinfacts for examples far too often.
I wouldn't take the average U.S. mint customer service employees words as verbatim of what can or can not occur. Also since these are not 'coins' they are medals the mint very well could have struck the 2007 in 2008 or whatever year they wanted because they aren't bound to mint them within the same year period like that are for coins.
Thanks for clarifying that.. I'd rather have confidence in the chosen 3rd party grader, than the alternative.. So maybe they are on the up and up..
