Dime error found in silver reverse proof set
A nifty dime error has been reported by Numismatic News reader Rob Garfinkle.
It was found in a 2018-S silver reverse proof set.
It is visually quite striking, don’t you think?
Already it has been sent in to Numismatic Guaranty Corporation for authentication and grading.
The label notes that the coin has a High Wire Rim.
A grade of PR69 has been assigned.
Naturally, Mr. Garfinkle wants to know what it might be worth.
That is a standard question.
At this point, though, it is too early to provide an answer.
We have to find out how many of these errors there are.
Markets do things that at first glance might seem a little strange.
Errors like doubled dies that involve thousands of coins are more highly valued by error collectors than one-of-a-kind, random chance errors.
This dime falls into the latter category.
That does not mean it has no value, but a one-of-a-kind error does not earn a listing in the price guides.
I forwarded the images sent to me to Ken Potter, who is the error expert for Numismatic News.
He wrote to Mr. Garfinkle: “From what I can see of the pics it appears to be dominant on one side of the reverse as one can see in the third picture. In my opinion, this is probably due to being struck under higher than normal pressure with a slightly tilted die ...”
Potter provides more information than I can put into this blog.
But there is one other point of interest here:
“This coin seems to suggest that the coins were struck with the reverse die in the hammer die position, as most all the finning I have seen on coins occurs along the rim on the obverse.
“The U.S. Mint has been striking the States and ATB quarters with the reverse die in the hammer position, so I would not be particularly surprised to learn they have done it with other coins in recent years, and in fact there is some evidence that they have at least for some Lincoln cents in the 1990s.”
That takes care of this coin for the moment.
However, as we wait for more reverse proof sets to be examined, we should remind ourselves that NGC previously found the light finish reverse proofs.
We have to wonder about the Mint’s quality control for this silver reverse proof set.
If it was not as good as it should be, there will be more errors to be found among the 200,000 sets.
I’ll bet many of them are still unexamined by their owners.
How about yours?
Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."
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